Bottled Grapefruit Juice

by Kylie Foster September 09, 2019

Do you have an excess of grapefruit and don't know what to do with it all? There's only so much marmalade one can eat, right? This bottled grapefruit juice recipe will use up a lot of this excess fruit and will give you a lovely mixer to enjoy over summer. Feel free to add in other citrus too - in developing this recipe, I also added in the juice from a few oranges, limes and lemons that I had on hand.

I've developed this recipe with the intention to dilute it by about 50% with fizzy water (50/50 mix grapefruit juice and carbonated water). You can adjust the sweetness to suit your tastebuds or intended use.

Makes: 5x 530 mL Weck Juice Jars (with a little left over to keep in your fridge)

Ingredients:

3 L freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 1/2 cups sugar (I use raw golden sugar)

Method:

1. Wash your bottles/jars, lids and rubber rings (if using) in hot soapy water and then place into an oven set at a low temperature. The oven is to keep the jars warm to reduce heat shock rather than to sterilise them. With Weck glass lids, these can go into the oven with the jars (the rubber rings and clamps should not go into the oven). If you are using Ball jars, don't put the lids or rings into the oven. At this stage, you should also wash a funnel that you'll use in step 5.
2. Put hot water into your canning pot and start bringing to the boil so it is ready when your sweetened juice is.
3. Juice fresh grapefruit until you have approximately 3L of liquid. Pour into another large pot and put over a medium heat.
4. Add the sugar and mix to dissolve. Check the level of sweetness and adjust if necessary.
5. Once the juice has come to a boil, it is ready to be transferred to the preserving jars. Transfer the juice to a jug that you can easy pour from - I use a 2 L Pyrex jug for this. Using a funnel, pour the juice into the preserving jars, leaving a 1/2" (1.5 cm headspace). If using Weck jars, place the rubber ring onto the lid, then place this onto the jar and clamp in place (2 per jar). If using Ball mason jars, add the lid and screw on the band until finger tight.
6. Place these jars onto a canning rack and lower into the boiling water of your canning pot. Adjust the water level, as necessary, to ensure that you have at least 1" (2.5 cm) of water covering the top of the jars. Bring the water back to the boil. Once boiling, heat process for 15 minutes. (Adjust the heat as required so that the boil isn't too aggressive.)
7. Turn off the heat. Using a jar lifter, remove the jars from the hot water and place on a folded tea towel and leave without disturbing until completely cooled.
8. Once cooled, remove the clamps (or bands if using Ball jars) and check that a good seal has formed. Label the jars and place in your pantry for up to 12 months. 

Recipe notes:

I've recommended the 530 mL juice jars by Weck for this but you could preserve this in Ball jars too (the regular mouth pint or regular mouth quart would be great for this - both have shoulders on the jars making it easier to pour liquid from). I use the 20 L pot from the Ball Deluxe Home Preserving Starter Kit for my preserves - note that the 1 L Weck juice jar is too tall for heat processing in this pot.

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