Super easy Canned Grape Juice

[Sheila]

Canned Grape Juice
makes three quart jars

3 cups whole grapes, off the vine
1 cup sugar
10 cups water


Directions:

Sterilize your jars and lids.
Stem, wash, and drain grapes.
Prepare a syrup by combining the sugar and water and bringing it to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Add 1 cup of grapes to each quart jar. Ladle hot syrup into jars, being sure to release the air bubbles, until there’s 1 inch head space.
Wipe the rims and seal the jar.
Process in a boiling water bath for twenty minutes (start counting once the water has reached a boil), more depending on altitude.This grape juice method essentially uses a raw pack process. You can do the same recipe to can a whole jar of grapes, in which case you would simply fill the jar with grapes, and then add the syrup. You can adjust the syrup to your liking. I use a very light amount of syrup for this recipe to get as close to the natural sugar levels in most fruits. It also adds the fewest calories.

The final product is a very fresh tasting grape juice, which tastes more like grape and less like sugar. Enjoy!

[Valerie]

This is how I do mine (sort of). I wasn't sure about it, until I saw that my grandma had circled the recipe in pencil in her canning book. That was her sign of a go-to recipe.

Her recipe doesn't call for making syrup, though. Just put a cup of grapes in the jar, add the sugar, and fill with water. And process under pressure. For concords, they say 1 cup of sugar per jar, but for my muscadines that was way too sweet. I cut it back to 1/2 cup the first year; it was still way sweet, so this past year I just left the sugar out.

Matter of fact, I think I'll crack open a jar right now. Thanks, Sheila!

[Sheila]

Oh that's great Valerie I have never canned grape juice i always figured it was to much work juicing all those grapes,to make it worth. So all those grapes that will be ripe in a few months will make allot of grape juice sense we can eat so many before getting tired of them.

[Valerie]

Yeah, you just have to let it sit in the jars for like 6 or 8 weeks before you drink it. When I use it, I pour it through a strainer and smush the grapes some, to get some pulp in the juice. Muscadines aren't as strong as concords, so it helps pump up the flavor.

[Sheila]

Am wondering if this same method can be used with cherries or other soft fruit.

[Valerie]

That would be nice, huh?! Not having to do all that cooking and straining and all, just for a dab of juice.