Pomegranates are at their best from now until about Christmas, and every year I buy a couple, cut one open, and remember why I don’t buy them more often. The juice gets everywhere. It’s on the chopping board, the cuff of my jumper, the wall behind the sink. It stains, too, so it’s not a mess you can just wipe up and forget about.

There are three common ways to get the seeds (properly called arils) out.

1. Picking them out by hand

Quarter the fruit and work the seeds loose with your thumbs. You won’t burst many this way, but it’s slow, and the white pith sticks to everything. I don’t mind it for one pomegranate on a quiet Sunday. I mind it a lot when I need a cupful for a salad and people are due in twenty minutes.

2. The bowl of water trick

Break the fruit into chunks under water in a big bowl. The seeds sink, the pith floats, and most of the spray stays under the surface. This is the method I’d suggest if you only eat pomegranate once in a while, because it costs nothing. The downside is that you then have to skim the pith off and drain the seeds, and they’re wet when you want to use them.

3. Whacking it with a wooden spoon

Hold a half cut-side down over a bowl and hit the back hard with a spoon. The seeds rain out. It’s fast, and it’s satisfying, but the half is slippery and your hand gets sprayed every time a seed bursts. Your hand is also the thing most likely to get hit.

A deseeder takes the hand out of method 3

The Seed Out 60 Second Pomegranate Deseeder is a simple green plastic ring, about six inches across and an inch and a half tall, with a grid moulded into the top. Stand it in a bowl, put a pomegranate half on the grid cut-side down, and tap the skin with a spoon. The grid holds the half steady, so you aren’t gripping a wet fruit while you hit it, and the seeds drop through into the bowl underneath. The makers say you can do two pomegranates in under a minute. I’d allow a bit longer for the first go while you work out how hard to tap.

It’s not a sophisticated thing, and it won’t give you perfectly pith-free seeds. You’ll still pick out a few bits of membrane. What it does fix is the most annoying part of the spoon method, which is your hand being right in the splash zone.

One more tip, whichever way you go: wear something dark, or an apron. Pomegranate juice on a white T-shirt is a wash you’ll lose.