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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Rhubarb Juice Concentrate



Next to asparagus, rhubarb is that herald of springtime you'll see now in gardens, the farmers markets and stores. The beautiful red stalks shoot up out of the earth with the sole purpose of providing us with wonderful desserts, chutneys and barbecue sauces....at least I believe that to be true!

I decided to try a new recipe from my canning book that involves extracting the juices from stewed rhubarb to create juice concentrate that can be diluted using water, sparkling water, ginger ale or club soda! My children love it because it is tasty and extremely refreshing! Add some vodka, cassis or gin to the mix and you have a lovely drink to sip in the summer sun!!!

RHUBARB JUICE CONCENTRATE
Ingredients:
12 cups of chopped rhubarb (1" dice)
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
  • In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine rhubarb and water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until rhubarb is soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
  • Line a large sieve with a couple of layers of cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Pour the contents of the saucepan into the sieve and let drip, undisturbed for at least 2 hours.
  • Once all the juice has collected in the bowl, transfer the juice to a large, clean stainless steel saucepan and combine the rhubarb juice with the sugar. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Do not boil. Remove from heat and skim off the foam.
  • To reconstitute, mix one part concentrate with one part water, tonic water, ginger ale, or club soda; adjust to suit your taste!

If you are a home preserver like myself, then prepare 4 pint jars (500mL) in your canner and then ladle the hot concentrate into the jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rim, centre lid on the jar and screw the band down until finger tight. Place jars in canner,ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil, and process for 10 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 mins, then remove the jars. Cool and store for delicious rhubarb juice all year round!!!

4 comments:

  1. researching a way to extract the rhubarb juice, but i prefer a tart not sweet product. in your humble opinion, is this the recipe i'm looking for?

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  2. This is indeed a tart juice despite the addition of the sugar, however if you prefer to monitor the amount of sugar per drink, then leave it out and just add some ginger ale or fruit juice to sweeten the rhubarb!
    I love the tartness of rhubarb and just add mineral water to this concentrate!

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  3. What is your normal yield for this size recipe? I just Harvested a large clothes basket full and am thinking juice for this batch.

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