It’s the end of the citrus season here in Texas and it seems all citrus is on sale everywhere! My husband and oldest son love grapefruit juice so I thought I’d can some for them. Grapefruit juice is really easy to can and if you can your own you know exactly what goes into it—no preservatives!
How To Can Grapefruit Juice Step by Step:
I bought grapefruit on sale 5 for a dollar. I started with about 35 grapefruit. Wash all your grapefruit thoroughly.
I have a centrifugal juicer so I needed to remove the skin before putting the grapefruit into the juicer. I start by removing the ends.
Then working around the fruit removing the skin.
Your grapefruit should look like this when you’re done.
Here is my juicer. In the picture (on the right) you can see the juicing glass that comes with the juicer. You can find the juicer here on Amazon.
I replaced the juicing glass with a large bowl since I have a lot of grapefruit to juice.
It’s fun to watch the juicer work. This juicer produces a fair amount of foam that I had to strain off but I think it’s still easier than a citrus juicer.
Put the juice in a large pot and heat it up. It’s not necessary to boil the juice.
Wash your canning jars.
And wash your lids.
And your rings.
Place all your canning jars on a cookie sheet and place in the oven.
Sterilizing jars and lids is not necessary for processing times of 10 minutes or longer, I place them in the oven at 200 degrees to keep them warm. You want hot grapefruit juice and hot jars to go into your water bath canner. If you let either cool down too much you could end up with broken jars.
Place all your lids and rings in a small pot. I bring this pot to a boil briefly and then turn it to low to keep it hot. This is to loosen the seal so you will have a good seal between the lid and the jar. (Update: Ball no longer recommends doing this. So after you’ve washed your lids just place them in a bowl and set them aside until your ready to use them)
When the grapefruit juice is heated take the jars out of the oven. I added 3 T of sugar per quart for this batch but this is optional.
Fill the jars with juice.
Grapefruit juice needs 1/4 in. headspace. Headspace is the distance between the jar and the lid; this handy tool helps measure.
The other end removes the air bubbles from the jars. Although it seems I can never get them all out.
Wipe off the rims of the jars so you can get a good seal.
Remove the rings from the pot. This tool has a magnet on the end that makes it easier to grab the rings and the lids.
Place the lids on the jars.
Place the rings on the jars and tighten “finger tight.” Finger tight means not too tight and not too loose. Just tighten them as far as they will go without forcing them.
Place the jars in the canner.
Here I have five-quart jars in my water bath canner. Bring the water to a boil and start the timer. Grapefruit juice should be processed (boiled) for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. You can find adjustments for altitude here. To look up your altitude go here. Turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the water for about 5 minutes.
Then remove the jars from the canner. The jars will be hot!
Let your jars sit and cool for at least eight hours, then remove the rings. If the rings stay on and the lid fails (becomes unsealed) and the ring is still on, the lid may reseal itself. However, bacteria has already invaded the jar and the juice should not be consumed, with the ring left on there is no way you will know about the resealing. If the rings are off the lid has no pressure to reseal itself so if the lid seal fails then you’ll know and you can throw that jar out. Label and put away.
Now, you can have grapefruit juice you made yourself with no preservatives all
year long!
