Thursday, June 24, 2010

How To Make Muscadine Juice

Musacdine grapes
Water
Large Stock pot
Strainer
Storage container(s)



Sort and thoroughly wash the grapes. Measure/weigh your grapes. Place grapes in stockpot. Using a pastry cutter (as my Grandmother would do) or other object crush the grapes to help release meat from skins. Or you can take the easy route and place them in your food processor and pulse lightly to break the skins up. Add enough water to just cover grapes. You don't want to over fill with water as that will dilute your juice flavor. Bring grapes to a boil.



Reduce heat & cover pot with lid. Allow to simmer until grape hulls are tender; about 15 minutes. Let cool. Drain juice into another container by running it through a Foley food mill. Using the food mill helps to extract more juice as well as separates the seeds, stems and skins that will clog the strainer. Take the resulting juice stock and strain it through a damp jelly cloth or several layers of cheese cloth.


Juice can now be used for your intended recipe(s). I started out with 36 pounds of grapes and rendered out 3-1/2 gallons of juice.

You can also can your juice by following a few simple steps...Reheat the juice to a simmer. Pour the juice into hot sterile pint or quart sized canning jars. Wipe jar edges clean and top with seals and bands. Place jars into a water bath canner and process for 10 minutes. Remember to start your timer after the water has come to a full rolling boil. Remove jars from canner and allow to cool. Listen for the "ping" sound that tells you the jars have sealed properly.

Click HERE for printable recipe

**A great place to check out canning supplies is over at Our Happy Homestead


3 comments:

Cranky G. said...

Wow. Just wow. You never cease to amaze me, Mrs. M! You are such an inspiration, truly, you are!

Thanks for being YOU!

Keeper of the Home said...

Cranky ~
Iron sharpens iron. You are an inspiration to me as well. Thank you for your kind words.

~Mrs. M

Unknown said...

Growung up in west texas we had a grape srbor in our backyard it was a 12X12X12 trellis room that was always full of green thompson seedless grapes!!! Evertsummer we would have a harvest party to oick laundry baskets of grapes that i would sell to pay for girl scout camo and registration. One yesr had a bumper crop and mom made juice. Boiled squished and drained into about 10 milk cart'ns.

Now, im in arizona and have my 2nd summer and im attempting juice. I think i skipped a steo put em in a strainer in a pot to boil but forgot to squish em but they smell amazing!!! When i lift the strainer the water is a sunset red! I hope this turns out OK!

Thanks for your sharing!!!

Blessings

Joanne