I decided to pasteurize the juice so it would have a longer shelf life in the fridge, giving that Mike and I would be the only ones drinking it. Liam participated in the process, and I talked to him about the reasons for pasteurizing juice and milk, as well as the temperatures needed for killing off bacteria, especially since our process wasn't the most sanitary, nor were the fruit, I decided it was a necessary step.The first part was calibrating the thermometer, I showed Liam how to check for proper temperature reading, as well as why it was necessary. To calibrate, fill a cup with ice, and water, and check the temp... it should register at 32 degrees, F. If not, the thermometer needs adjusting. A quick turn of the bolt on the back, got it to 32F.
I made a simple syrup of sugar, honey and water to go into the very sour grapefruit juice.
Into the pot... it's nice to have such a large stainless steel cooking pot!
checking the temp, slowly rising.
Checking every few minutes during the cooking to get the juice to the temp of 165... I went ahead and raised it to 18oF for a quick kill. A temp of 165 held for 15 seconds generally suffices for basic pasteurization.
I wanted it to cool as fast as possible as well, so Ice was put in a bag to basically "ice bath" the juice. I went through two bags of ice till it was close to 50F, then it is cool enough for the fridge.
We got a good gallon and a half of juice
A full bucket of compostable grapefruit remnants
And just a few grapefruit left for eating, the box was full to the top when we started.
Many thanks go out to Louis Pasteur for coming up with this process. It has increased the shelf life of milk, and many other items, as well as decreasing the possibility of food borne illnesses occurring through bacteria growth. A great scientist, who's method we imitated in our own kitchen.
I made a simple syrup of sugar, honey and water to go into the very sour grapefruit juice. 
Into the pot... it's nice to have such a large stainless steel cooking pot!checking the temp, slowly rising.Checking every few minutes during the cooking to get the juice to the temp of 165... I went ahead and raised it to 18oF for a quick kill. A temp of 165 held for 15 seconds generally suffices for basic pasteurization.
I wanted it to cool as fast as possible as well, so Ice was put in a bag to basically "ice bath" the juice. I went through two bags of ice till it was close to 50F, then it is cool enough for the fridge.
We got a good gallon and a half of juice
A full bucket of compostable grapefruit remnants
And just a few grapefruit left for eating, the box was full to the top when we started.
Many thanks go out to Louis Pasteur for coming up with this process. It has increased the shelf life of milk, and many other items, as well as decreasing the possibility of food borne illnesses occurring through bacteria growth. A great scientist, who's method we imitated in our own kitchen. 
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