Verjus (or sour grape juice)
If life doesn’t give you lemons, make verjus!
Chef Becky Selengut
Our desire to use local seasonal
ingredients has us seeking replacements for citrus products. During our workshops we use the sour juice of green grapes to add the sharp snap of lemon juice.
Verjus is the French name for the juice of under-ripe grapes used as an acidifier and flavor enhancer for cooking or in salad dressing.
The grapes we use are cluster thinned from vinifera vines that are grown here at Quillisascut. At this stage the grapes look like green peas. You can put the under-ripe grapes through a juicer and refrigerate the extract until needed.
Or what we do is put them through a meat grinder, drain the juice from the pulp through a cheesecloth, pour all the juice in a large glass jar and when the sediment has settled to the bottom, siphon off the clear juice and freeze in pint size tubs.
If using semi-ripened grapes that are sweet the juice may start to ferment. To store the juice for an extended period of time freeze in ice cube trays and keep frozen until needed. One ice cube is approximately one ounce.
Have you heard the term sour grapes? That’ what we’re talking about!