How to cut a pomegranate
This game-changing method for getting the seeds out of a pomegranate is fast, clean, and easy.

I love pomegranate seeds, but for a long time I avoided buying pomegranates because of what a mess it was to get all of the seeds out. Juice all over the place, stained hands and clothes, and sure, the seeds pop out satisfyingly, but it takes forevvvver.
Then I learned the trick! You do almost all of the work while the pomegranate is underwater in a big bowl. This method is fast, clean, and easy. I learned it a few years ago from my friend Kal.
Start by filling a large bowl with water.

Cut off the very top and bottom of the pomegranate.

Gently cut vertically, from top to bottom, but only through the outer rind, just a couple millimeters. Try to avoid cutting the seeds. Do it about five or six times around the outside edge. Sometimes you can kind of line it up with where the white inner membrane meets the outer rind, but don’t sweat it if you can’t see where that is.

Drop the pomegranate into the bowl of water. You can see the cuts in the outer rind—they look much deeper than they are, because I angled the knife in a bit right at the top. You only want those cuts to be in the outer rind.

Discard the top and bottom pieces, and clean your cutting board and knife. That’s it for the mess, and it's hardly anything! It’s going to be clean work from here out.

With your hands under the water with the pomegranate, break the it into about four to six big chunks, using the top-to-bottom cuts you made.

Use your thumbs to gently pop the seeds off of the pith, still working under the water.

Here's the real magic in this technique: the seeds will sink to the bottom, but every last bit of the pith and membrane will float. They're like boys and girls on opposite sides of the room at a middle school dance in the '80s.

Once the seeds have all been popped off and are at the bottom, scoop the pith and membrane out of the top of the bowl and throw them out.

If there are any teeny little bits of white pith hanging out on the seeds, pop them off. They’ll float up and you can discard them.
Once you’ve got all of the membrane and pith pieces out, strain the seeds out of the water. Pull out any seeds that are soft or brown, and throw those away.

You’ve got pomegranate seeds! Store them in a container in the fridge.

Pomegranate seeds are great for snacking, or adding a little pop of crunchy sweetness to a salad, but they are particularly fun to use for decorating. This is a cranberry tart I made a couple Christmases ago; the pomegranate seeds look like little gems!
A nifty thing I learned in writing this post: I've often seen the seeds referred to as "arils," but according to this publication in the journal Foods from last year, "seeds" is correct, but "arils" is not. The proper name for the fleshy, fruity bit around the actual reproductive elements at the core would be "testa" or "sarcotesta." Per the article, an "aril" is a botanical structure different from that found in a pomegranate.
I would want to do some digging for further corroboration from other sources before I start going around announcing "pomegranates don't have arils!" Plus, if I say "pomegranate aril" and you know what I'm talking about, then for our casual, non-scientific purposes, the language has done its job. I'm not gonna go policing anyone's pomegranate language uninvited.
But for now, I'll stick with calling them seeds.
