How To Make Pomegranate Jelly

When blessed with this box of beautiful pomegranates over the weekend, I knew I had to put them to good use. Not only are they super incredibly good for you, but they are SO delicious!

how to juice a pomegranate

There’s just one problem.

Have you ever tried to eat a pomegranate?

That’s a whole lotta work to get to those juicy little seeds!

From the time I woke up this morning until after dinner, I was up to my eyeballs in pomegranates. Oh, you should see the red splatters all over my kitchen counters. And walls. And floors.

Good thing I had on an apron. At one point I began to fear the mail lady knocking on my door; I envisioned the horror in her eyes as I came to greet her with a knife in hand and bright red stains speckling my face and entire frontside. No, really… it’s pomegranate juice!

Before I jumped into this project I had to look up the best way to open a pomegranate. It’s a tricky thing, you know.

Here’s your step-by-step for how to juice a pomegranate:

1. Cut off the tip of the pomegranate.

2. Cut slits from top to bottom all the way around the fruit, so as to separate it into sections.

3. Soak the pomegranates  in water for about 5 minutes.

Once they’ve soaked a little while, pull each section apart and gently pop the seeds off of the rind. The seeds will sink in the water, and the rind and flesh from inside the fruit will float. Skim off the unwanted floaters, and gather your juicy seeds for the next step.

how to juice a pomegranate

My Jada loves to eat these seeds just like this. But there is a seed within the seed, and I can’t stand chomping on the gritty middle. So, after she’d had her fill, I took two big bowls of pomegranate seeds and juiced them in a juicer. (I tried using my Back To Basics Food Strainer with the tomato screen and then with the berry screen, but it did NOT work well for these.)

About half of the box of pomegranates yielded a half a gallon of juice. And it was so sweet and tasty! The kids and I enjoyed a glassful right then. But since I have a lot of these, I wanted to play around and try making pomegranate jelly.

Here’s the recipe I used, you can halve it if you don’t have this much juice to work with.

Makes 6 pints.

  • 7 cups pomegranate juice
  • 2 packs powdered pectin
  • 10 cups sugar

Combine juice and pectin in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Bring back to a boil. Once it’s boiling hard, time it for one minute, stirring constantly to avoid scorching. Remove from heat. You can skim the foam off the top if you want, just for looks. Ladle hot jelly into hot jars leaving 1/4″ headspace. Screw sterilized lids on and turn upside down to cool. The Ball Blue book recommends hot water bathing these for 10 minutes… but you know me, I never water bath my jellies.

pomegranate jelly

Lucky me, there was enough leftover in the pot to pour into a small glass jar to test out right away.

Oh, heaven! Pomegranate jelly is so worth the effort.

Have you ever tried to juice a pomegranate? What’s your favorite thing to do with these super fruits?

18 thoughts on “How To Make Pomegranate Jelly”

  1. I spent about 30 mins shelling about 13 pomageants the other night. What I found to be super easy was to cut them in half and then start smacking the bejeebers out of them with a wooden spoon. Worked great 🙂

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  2. I invert all my jellys and jams. As the gelling point temperature is 8 degrees higher than that of boiling water, it makes sense to me that the higher heat of the contents does just as good a job as using a water bath canner, and a lot less trouble. Works fine with my pickled peaches, too.

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  3. Hi Kendra,

    I absolutely adore your jelly recipes! I’ve made the honeysuckle and pomagrante and love to give them as gifts to my kids’ teachers. Also, I adapted your honeysuckle jelly recipe to make rose petal jelly. It is my most favorite of all! You never know what the next batch is going to taste like when you use different breeds of roses.

    Thank you so much for sharing with us.

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  4. Does anyone have some alternative ways to make Jelly without the straight sugar? I haven’t read that pectin is as bad for you as the sugar. SO if you used pectin for firmness what could you do with another sweetner?? would love some tips???

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  5. I love to can jams, jellies & fruit butters. Due to my health I haven’t been able to pursue my passion for canning for a few years. You have inspired me to make some of this delish looking pom jelly. There’s only one thing though a pet peeve of mine really I have never ever used any form of pectin, I was taught by my great-great grandmother who in all likelihood never heard tell of store bought pectin or sure-jelI. There’s a satisfied feeling of accomplishment by using the total organic approach (according to how you acquire your fruit as well) to making my homemade goodness; whether it be blackberry jam, strawberry jam, apple chutney, peach preserves, peach butter – I just gave my southern roots away, lol, apple butter, apple jelly, & pear preserves. I think that about covers it. My secret is 5# of fruit to a dishpan, then cover the fruit with 4-5# of sugar depending on taste. Do not stir, cover with foil n let sit on counter overnight. Those delicious juices will work in the sugar overnite making it’s own syrup, so all I have to do next is place the dishpan on the stove first thing next morning, bring to a boil, cut back heat and stir constantly. A little more time consuming but worth every bit. The fruit will thicken up on it’s own the longer you stir. Now you’ve got some organic jam or jelly without any added preservatives. I also hot water bath my finished jars of goodness cause who wants to take a chance on mold or mildew !!

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  6. Big hint here every homestead needs a stainless steel steam juicer. Even better yet if you can afford one get a Weck Canner/Juicer you will find it’s worth every penny. It does and amazing job on our elderberries, or juice your apples then make apple sauce or apple leather with the left over pulp. The steam juicer does take quite a bit out of the fruit though.

    I just found my stainless steel juicer for the stove top at Amazon.com

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  7. My mother-in-law is getting pomegranate jelly for Christmas (she LOVES it), as well as a few others. I have a tree in the backyard and my husband has more trees out on the farm. Makes a fabulous gift and it is soooo yummy.

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  8. Found your website the other day….can’t remember how exactly :-), but I’ve been so amazed at how much we have in common. We’re raising 8 chickens, 3 rabbits, have a new veggie garden growing, and have been planting new fruit trees also.

    We’ve had a pomegranate tree for about 4 years now, and this year was our best year yet….had roughly 120 poms and getting those seeds out is a LOT of work. Watched a video of Jacques Pepin using a spoon to tap the back of the fruit to get the seeds out…it works if they’re really ripe, but I like the old fashioned way of just using my thumb to push them out. I froze a bunch of the seeds and my husband loves to eat them frozen (like candy). I’m going to try the jelly with the rest (hopefully, he won’t eat them first).

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  9. Oh yum! I haven’t had pomegranates in forever! I’d be tempted to make grenadine with some of the syrup… mmm, Shirley Temples… 😀

    So you just did the inversion method then, right? You are brave. I’m too… oh, let’s say cautious *cough, anal* to do that. Plus I like keeping things good for several years (so I only have to do cranberry sauce, relish, vegetable stock, etc. every few years – comes in handy when there’s a bad growing year).

    Reply
    • Lanna,

      Well… I figure, my mother-in-law has been doing her jelly like this for her entire life, and she’s still around (and my husband is still kickin’) to tell about it. Anything other than jelly I’ll process, definitely.

      Shirley Temples… I would have never thought of that. I LOVE Shirley Temples. Used to order them all the time as a kid ’cause it made me feel grown up to drink something other than milk or juice 🙂

      Reply
  10. I totally understand why Pom juice is so expensive. I tried seeding one a few weeks ago and WOW what a mess! But it will be worth it when the pomegranate-infused liqour is ready in a couple more weeks 🙂

    Reply

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