Susan's Recipes

How to Make Pomegranate Jelly and Pomegranate Syrup

Make pomegranate jelly, pomegranate syrup, and grenadine.

Juicing the Pomegranates

Find a tree because it's too expensive to buy enough pomegranates. Use a pair of small shears and wear a heavy jacket to protect your arms against the thorns.

Before you make anything, juice the pomegranates. Use a spoon to scoop out the pomegranate seeds. Place them in a jelly or cloth bag and squeeze out the juice. Strain the juice through a second cloth bag or a jelly bag. If you don't have enough juice for your recipe, add a bit of water to the leftover pulp. Paula Woolfert in the Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean recommends against reaming the pomegranates because the white parts are bitter. She puts the seeds into a cheesecloth and squeezes them by hand. In the November ‘95 Saveur magazine, it’s recommended to roll the pomegranates around to soften it up inside, poking a hole in it, and then squeezing the juice through the hole.

Tip: You can freeze the pomegranate seeds.

How to Make Pomegranate Jelly

Ingredients

• 4 cups pomegranate juice
• 7 & 1/2 cups of sugar
• 2 - 4 T of lemon juice depending on the sweetness of the fruit
• 1 bottle of liquid pectin (you can use the recipe on the bottle of commercial pectin to make jelly)

Preparation

1. Have your canning jars ready.
2. Measure juice, lemon juice and sugar into a large sauce pan and mix.
3. Bring to boil over hottest heat and at once add the liquid pectin and stir constantly.
4. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for exactly 30 seconds.
5. Skim, pour quickly into hot sterilized jars, and seal.
6. Makes about 11 8-ounce jars.
7. The recipe doesn't call for heat processing. However, every jelly recipe I've read says to use hot water bath process for five minutes. Better safe than sorry.

How to Make Pomegranate Syrup

1. Measure equal parts of pomegranate juice and sugar and let it stand for three days.
2. Bring to a boil, simmer 5 minutes, strain, pour into sterilized jars, and seal. Don’t forget the hot water bath.
3. The syrup may be used diluted with cold water to taste (I usually do a four to one ratio for fruit syrups) and served over ice. It's splashed over grapefruit and used in some cocktails. I suppose it would be wonderful over vanilla ice cream and so on.
4. The November ‘95 Saveur magazine has a recipe for pomegranate sorbet which looks divine. You could also boil it down and make pomegranate molasses.

The recipes are from the Cooperative Extension of the University of California’s Master Food Preserver program (tel. 916-366-2013). Most counties have a similar agency.

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