Recipes: Regent Grape Juice with no Added Sugar

It’s recently been grape harvesting season and we were glad to be blessed with a large amount of wine grapes (here in the UK you can grow them outside and you can see how we grow them in our little suburban garden in the post linked below). You can of course make wine with them, but since our house has recently welcomed the arrival of little people, we haven’t been drinking much wine. Plus, it’s a lengthy process that perhaps is worth it if you get a very large amount of grapes, say at least 100 clusters?

For smaller harvests, we’d recommend trying to make juice. It’s not only a wholesome and refreshing drink, but can be used as a basis for lovely sauces, or turned into fabulous jelly dessert. Here is an easy way to make it.

Ingredients:

- Large bowl of Regent grapes

- Water

To fill a large pot, we only needed the grapes that fit in this colander, plus a few more clusters. The rest was turned into jelly!

Steps:

1. Wash all clusters in cold water.

2. To prepare the grapes for simmering, take a few clusters and place them in the bottom of a large pot in a single layer. Using a glass with a flat bottom, press the clusters down to squish the grapes and release the pulp and juices. Pull the squished grapes off of their stalks and discard the stalks. Repeat as necessary. As you fill the pot it will become more difficult to squish the grapes with a glass, and you might need to use your hands.

Our pot is filling up...

3. Run a potato masher through your grapes to release more seeds and juice. This will reduce the time you’ll need to boil the grapes in order to be able to strain them, which will in turn preserve more goodness.

Looking well mashed. Adding a bit more water now will make it less likely fir grapes to stick and burn at the bottom.

4. Add only enough water to cover all grapes thoroughly. Place the pot on a burner and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the skins turn paler and the juices darker. Leave to cool.

The mixture after the brief simmer.

5. Line a colander with a clean muslin cloth and place it inside a large bowl. Slowly empty the cooled grapes with their juices into the muslin. Lift the muslin by its four corners to let the juices flow down. You should now have a muslin formed into a sack full of cooked grapes. Slowly twist the muslin from the top down in a wringing motion to squeeze out all the remaining juices.

6. If you’re after a clearish looking juice or jelly, you can discard the remaining skins and seeds.. I do this when making juice purely for drinking. But I also make grape juice to use as basis for stir-fry sauces, in which case I like to run the remaining skins through a strainer - this adds some welcome tartness and “bits” into our sauces.

Press the pulp through a strainer with a spoon and scrape the bottom side.

7. Clean preserving jars or bottles with their lids in hot soapy water. Make sure that they are of identical or almost identical height. Once clean, place them all upright in the bottom of the sink and pour boiling hot water over them. You will soon be boiling the jars with their contents in a water bath to kill off any potential remaining pathogens.

8. Pour the juice into the jars or bottles, leaving two fingers width of space at the top. Tightly screw on the lids.

9. Line a clean pot with cloth or paper. Place the jars with juice inside the pot - they should have identical height. Fill the pot with water till it reaches slightly below the lids of the jars. Bring to boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes under cover. The heat should be low enough to simmer but not create extensive bubbles - this is to protect the jars from dancing around in the pot and cracking.

10. Leave to cool down a bit, enough to handle. Take the jars out of the pot and place up side down in a cool place to cool down completely - this is best done overnight, otherwise give them at least 2 hours.

My clear juice in the bottles, cooling.

11. Once completely cool, turn them the right side up and check the seal is made well - the lids should be dented towards the inside of the jar. If using a different closure system, check the manufacturer’s guidance on how to test the seal. If sealed, store in a cool room for up to around three months (it may be good for longer but we simply use ours up too fast to test it beyond that time ;).

The juice intended for sauces with "bits" resting in the bottom.

Et voila! Here’s your grape juice. Important to mention the juice made this way is almost neat, meaning it is very sweet and you’ll probably want to dilute it with water to serve as a drink. I do, anyway! Enjoy and please leave a comment!