Grape juice is a valuable nutritional component, the main sugars of which are directly absorbed by the body. It contains a sufficient amount of tartaric and malic acids, vitamins and valuable biologically active substances.
Choose clean, healthy bunches. If they are sprayed with chemicals or soil, rinse and dry. Separate the berries. Place them in a bag made from two layers of gauze or cloth and squeeze under a small press. Put the resulting juice on a sludge so that it gets rid of pulp, skin and other particles. When standing, the taste and aroma of the juice are improved.
For colored juice, use grape varieties with red berries. To transfer the coloring matter from the skin to the juice, scald the bunches with boiling water. To do this, bring the water to a boil and immerse the grapes in it for 5 minutes. Then place it in an enamel or glass dish, close the lid. Squeeze the juice in the usual way after the berries have cooled.
To avoid fermentation, pasteurize the juice. To do this, after settling, pour the juice into jars or bottles, filling them up to the hangers. Dishes for pouring juice must be absolutely clean and odorless. First rinse it with cold water, then with hot water and baking soda. After that, treat with hot water without soda and rinse with cold water twice.
Secure the lids and plugs with holders, tying them to the dishes with twine or wire. Place the dishes in the pasteurizer. Dip a thermometer with a scale of up to 100 ° C into one of the jars to determine the temperature of the juice.
Pour water into the pasteurizer. It should exceed the level of juice in the cans and reach the lids. Heat the dishes. When the scale on the thermometer reaches 75 ° C, stop heating and soak the jars at this temperature for 30 minutes. Cover the pot with a thick cloth during pasteurization.
Two days later, the juice becomes clear, a sediment forms at the bottom. To get rid of it completely, pasteurize the juice a second time. To do this, two weeks after the first pasteurization, carefully drain the juice from the sediment, pour it into a clean container and seal it with lids. After repeated 30-minute pasteurization, the temperature of the juice should be 68-72 ° C.
Store the juice in a basement or other room with low humidity and constant temperature. Pasteurized juice can be stored for several years. The resulting crystalline precipitate will not affect the taste of the juice in any way.
