Punica granatum, the fruit of a small tree which is native to Iran and still grows wild there. The trees are small; evergreen or deciduous according to climate; and very long lived. The seed is distributed by birds which eat the fruit.
The pomegranate was well known in ancient Egypt. The Israelites in the desert regretted the refreshing fruit they had left behind them, so that Moses found it necessary to assure them that they would find it again in the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 8: 8). The fruit was known to the ancient Greeks and is mentioned in Homer, but it seems to have reached the Romans more circuitously via Carthage (Punis) in N. Africa. They called it mala punica (Carthaginian apple), whence comes the generic name Punica. The species name granatum, the Spanish granada, and the name pomegranate itself all refer to the many ‘grains’ or seeds.
Although the pomegranate has been cultivated and appreciated since antiquity, these seeds and the fact that the fruit is laborious to consume have held it back from universal popularity. The pulp which surrounds the seeds has to be separated from the membranes which retain it. And the seeds, although edible, are intrusive and require a decision whether to swallow them down or spit them out. The problem is well illustrated by a classical legend concerning the fruit. Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of fruit and fertility, was carried off to the underworld by its god, Hades (Pluto). Demeter, in her efforts to force her daughter's release, prevented earthly plants from bearing fruit (thus creating winter, a formerly unknown phenomenon). Persephone for her part, vowed not to eat while in Pluto's kingdom, but eventually succumbed and ate a pomegranate. She spat out all the seeds but for six, which she swallowed. When Pluto finally gave in to Demeter, he was allowed to keep Persephone for six months of every year because of those seeds; and this is supposed to be the origin of the alternation between winter and summer.
Spanish sailors took the pomegranate from the Mediterranean region, where it had long been cultivated, to America. It was a useful fruit for sea voyagers since its hard skin helps it to keep well. It became established in the south of the USA and then, in the 18th century, in California. The fruit had also spread eastwards, to India and China. The first mention in Indian literature is of the 1st century ad, about the time when Laufer (1978) considers that it arrived there. Many authors, relying on late sources, state that it had already reached China around 150 bc, having been introduced from Samarkand by Chang Kien; but Laufer shows that its arrival was more likely to have been early in the period ad. In China the fruit was grown in the warm south and sent to colder regions as an exotic delicacy.
Pomegranates are now most popular around the Mediterranean and throughout the Middle East as far as India. They have until recently been largely ignored by the English-speaking world, although some are grown in California for sale to inhabitants of Hispanic origin.
The fruit varies considerably in size and quality. Trees do not grow true from seed, so good varieties are propagated by cuttings. The best eating pomegranates are as big as large oranges, sometimes yellow in colour but more often dark brick red. The colour of the pulp may be anything between white and deep wine red. In the east, seedless or almost seedless pomegranates are quite common. In 1860 cuttings of a seedless tree from Palestine were distributed in the USA, and some trees from those cuttings may still be alive. But in general there seem to be no seedless varieties in western countries, although types with soft seeds are often classed as ‘seedless’.
Inferior pomegranates, especially those from wild trees, contain mostly seeds and membranes, and what pulp they have is very sour and astringent. Anyway, sour pomegranates have their uses, e.g. in India, where the seeds of the wild pomegranate (daru in N. India) are used as a sour condiment, anardana. In the Middle East also, sour pomegranate seeds often appear as a condiment or garnish.
Good eating pomegranates have plenty of juicy pulp with a sweet, sharp flavour which is only slightly astringent. This can simply be eaten out of the half-rind with a spoon, or more luxuriously presented by carefully separating it from the yellow membranes around it and piling the glistening pulp and seeds into a dish.
Pomegranate juice makes a refreshing drink. When reduced to a thick, dark syrup (robb-e anar in Iran) it is used in cooking, for example in some traditional Persian poultry or game dishes such as fesenjan, where walnuts in combination with the syrup provide the characteristic flavour. A similar use is found in the countries of the Caucasus, notably Azerbaijan; and it has penetrated northwards from the Caucasus into Russia.
The following quotation from Olearius (1669) in Laufer (1978) illustrates the antiquity of Persian practices with pomegranates:
Pomegranate-trees … grow there without any ordering or cultivation, especially in the Province of Kilan, where you have whole forests of them. The wild pomegranates, which you find almost everywhere, especially at Karabag, are sharp or sowrish. They take out of them the seed, which they call Nardan, wherewith they drive a great trade, and the Persians make use of it in their sawces, whereto it gives a colour, and a picquant tast, having been steep'd in water, and strain'd through a cloath. Sometimes they boyl the juyce of these Pomegranates, and keep it to give a colour to the rice, which they serve up at their entertainments, and it gives withall a tast which is not unpleasant.
Grenadine is a concentrated syrup made from the juice, but is suited to making a beverage, diluted, rather than for use in cooking. Commercial grenadine is usually very sweet.
Pomegranate jelly is also made.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Laufer, Berthold (1978), Sino Iranica, repr of 1919 edn, Taipei: Ch'eng Wen.
Olearius, A. (1669), Voyages of the Ambassadors to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia, London.
