my pomegranate-mint relish calls for 6 cups of pomegranate seeds. historically, i’m a picker, painfully and carefully extracting each seed from the surrounding pith. i had read about the soaking in water method but that seemed like you would lose valuable juice so i looked for another method and found a couple of videos which detail how thwacking the ponegranate half with a wooden spoon releases the seeds much more efficiently than picking. it’s true – spanking is more efficient but quality control goes down significantly as all seeds, even the brown, moldy ones, get dumped into the bowl. the spanking method is also slightly messier (see “bloody” mess all over the kitchen table – the dude in the youtube video wasn’t this messy), especially if you thwack it too hard or too carelessly. nevertheless, i will probably use this method again in the future – it’s worth it.