Whats eating Gilbert Grapefruit?

December 13, 2011 3:38 PM

Perhaps because of his childhood memories of selling fruit for his own highschool band, my boyfriend made an over enthusiastic grapefruit purchase. How are 2 people going to eat 10 lbs of grapefruit? 

We've been going at them, eating them for breakfast, but have barely made a dent.

I'm looking for recipes, storage or freezing tips, crafts, anything really.

I should be able to borrow some canning equipment. I've got no experience making jam or processing preserves so some beginner resources would be helpful.

For the curious we've got 14 grapefruit which are about 12oz each. We've got nearly any kitchen gadget you could ask for minus a microwave.

posted by fontophilic to Food & Drink (29 answers total)

Do you like grapefruit juice? It's a lot easier to drink a glass of juice than eat a whole grapefruit.

How about grapefruit sorbet? I've never made it, but I love it and I want to try making it some time.
posted by insectosaurus at 3:41 PM on December 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Make some Smoking Bishop for the holidays. It is DELICIOUS.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 3:42 PM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Take some to work? Good breakfast on the run if you forget to eat before leaving.
posted by anniecat at 3:42 PM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Jam! Please make jam! It is so good, it makes my knees tremble.
posted by leigh1 at 3:42 PM on December 13, 2011

Christmas is the time for giving and citrus is a classic gift. Take 4 of them and put them in a nice bowl or container or bag or something and give them to a hostess.

Also if you do them up in a simple syrup and put them into a jar in the fridge they will last at least a week - 14 grapefruit isn't so many for 2 of you to get through.

Grapefruit will also keep well for a good couple of weeks in your fridge.

Juicing them would be criminal in my opinion but if you really were up to your eyeballs in grapefruit you could do that and then freeze the juice - oh the cosmopolitans or vodka based drinks you could make would be divine.
posted by YukonQuirm at 3:43 PM on December 13, 2011

If you're alcohol drinkers, maybe you could do some grapefruit infused beverages. If you aren't but have friends or relatives that are, you may still have time to make some for Christmas presents.

A quick google brings up a few recipes. I'm sure you could find more with a bit more digging.
posted by youngergirl44 at 3:45 PM on December 13, 2011

Do you like cocktails? Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice + sake + little bit of lime + vodka + sugar to taste = AWESOMENESS

or or or grapefruit juice + soju/shochu + sugar + salt to taste + club soda = ALSO AWESOMENESS
posted by zennish at 3:45 PM on December 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Mario Batali's grapefruit and honey cake calls for two grapefruits and looks delicious.
posted by purpleclover at 3:46 PM on December 13, 2011

Seriously, juice away. Those little citrus juicers are like a dollar at Wal-Mart. You'd be surprised – citrus fruits really get smaller when juiced; I doubt you can get a gallon of juice out of those ten pounts. And a gallon of grapefruit juice, if you drink it regularly, will be gone in a few weeks.
posted by koeselitz at 3:50 PM on December 13, 2011

I've successfully kept grapefruits purchased from the band for almost two months in the around 50 degree garage (Northeast US). They were a bit dehydrated at the end but tasted fine. I cut about 4 grapefruits at a time in the supreme style which means cutting away all the peel then slicing the fruit from the membrane then squeezing the peels into the fruit. Two or three of us can eat this pretty quickly. If you have a vitamix then cutting the peel off the fruit and blending the entire fruit and membrane with some honey makes a great juice or vodka mixer though I would not store this in for even a couple hours as the white pith will make the juice bitter over a matter of a couple hours.

Other ideas I've never tried if you are ambitious: freezing the sliced supremes (to make juice later or sorbet), candied peels, salted (preserved) grapefruit like preserved lemons Moroccan style, grapefruit infused vodka.
posted by kimmae at 3:51 PM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

You could candy them, either as slices or just the peels. I haven't tried these particular recipes, but both Martha and smittenkitchen are pretty reliable.

Another idea would be to take a classic lemon recipe and use grapefruit, as in engagement chicken.

Sometimes for breakfast, instead of eating them with sugar, you can drizzle some honey on the top of a cut half and broil them. Yum!
posted by annsunny at 3:52 PM on December 13, 2011

Broil some for breakfast or dessert. It's healthy and sweet, so you can do this once you are sick of the raw grapefruit sourness.
posted by monkeys with typewriters at 3:52 PM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Or! or if you have space in your freezer you can make super concentrated simple syrup + grapefruit juice ice cubes, and then if/when you feel like have a drink you can just dump a couple ice cubes into some vodka and club soda.

i'll stop indulging my latent sugar-and-alcohol addictions now
posted by zennish at 3:53 PM on December 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Many suggestions here would work with grapefruits!
posted by pupstocks at 3:54 PM on December 13, 2011

Grapefruit Tarragon Vodka, with which to make salted tarragon greyhounds! Or granita.

( FYI, be aware that eating or drinking loads of grapefruit can affect the efficacy of some medications, including birth control.)
posted by hot soup girl at 4:00 PM on December 13, 2011

For the curious we've got 14 grapefruit...

Um. Fourteen? So you can each have one for breakfast every day for an entire week?

In my little two-person "family", we buy a sack of ten or twelve (not sure) at a time and somehow manage to eat them without special effort, usually every odd day for breakfast or a snack.

Seriously, how is this a challenge? Grapefruit lasts forever; it's not like it's going to go bad.
posted by rokusan at 4:12 PM on December 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

I know this. If you are like me (that is, compulsive and crazy), here is what you will do:

You will eat a couple, maybe drink some greyhounds. Then, when you are tired of eating grapefruit straight, you will juice all of the rest. You will make a grapefruit meringue pie just because. Then you will make marmalade with the leftover juice, pulp, and seeds (and a little rind). And finally you make candied grapefruit to put out with dessert and drinks and gobble up in the middle of the night when no one is looking.

10 pounds of grapefruit, made useful in a flash, with literally not a scrap wasted.
posted by peachfuzz at 4:15 PM on December 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

You can make Grapefruit Ade the same way you'd make Lemonade. Adjust the sugar to taste.
posted by TooFewShoes at 4:24 PM on December 13, 2011

Could you make juice and then freeze it? I don't know anything about LT storage needs of juice but I had a professor who used to buy big cartons of blood orange juice and freeze it in her freezer.
posted by anniecat at 4:38 PM on December 13, 2011

Baked, with a sprinkle of brown sugar on top, is heavenly. Still grapefruity, but changed into something mellower. My favorite part is drinking the juice from the bowl when I'm done eating the fruit.
posted by upatree at 5:24 PM on December 13, 2011

You could try making pomanders. Buy a couple tablespoons of whole cloves and poke them in one of the grapefruits and hand it up to dry for a few weeks.
posted by gray17 at 5:30 PM on December 13, 2011

Maybe it's just because I've been re-watching Larry Sanders lately, but the real answer here is the Salty Dog.
posted by hwyengr at 5:48 PM on December 13, 2011

While this may (and probably doesn't) apply, when Mrs. Plinth was pregnant with our first, she plowed through 10 pounds of grapefruit in two days. Two days. I swear I am not making this up.
posted by plinth at 7:32 PM on December 13, 2011

My grandmother used to candy the peels. Tremendous.

We used to bring home dozens every year when my grandparents had trees. Our answer was to give them away and make loads of orange-grapefruit juice mimosas for every holiday gathering.
posted by troublesome at 8:25 PM on December 13, 2011

Grapefruit-juice and Campari popsicles.
posted by Rat Spatula at 9:05 PM on December 13, 2011

We're in the same grapefruit boat. We've eaten some, given a couple to the neighbors, a couple to friends coming for dinner, and had a couple amazing salads: grapefruit with skins removed, thinly sliced red onion, cucumber, shaved fennel, avocado, red pepper flakes with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil and dijon. Another salad of spinach, grapefruit, pomegranate seeds, and dressing listed above. You could add a bit of honey to the dressing if you want, though I didn't. Watercress or Arugula would be good in there, too.
posted by ms_rasclark at 10:10 PM on December 13, 2011

Perhaps giving them away to a friend would work. If I lived where you did, I'd take all 14!
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 1:12 AM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Go Band! I bought a quarter bushel each of navels and grapefruit this year. I have a second round of candied peels from both, finishing on drying racks right now. And a pitcher of unjuiced flesh in the fridge. (Juice + gin + seltzer = Good Stuff!)

Some hops—whatever's used in Saranac's IPA, for example—have a really grapefruity flavor. I may finally get around to playing with cheladas.
posted by phrits at 4:59 AM on December 14, 2011

My mom has an extremely productive grapefruit tree in her yard, and every year around this time it explodes with fruit. She and her boyfriend eat as many as they can, but by the time I come home for Christmas the tree is pretty much sagging to the ground with fruit. For the last few years, I've devoted my first day home for the holidays to the harvesting and processing of the entire season's harvest in a single afternoon. It's so fun.

As others have mentioned upthread, candied grapefruit peel is delicious, and so is fresh squeezed juice, so my method is to peel them all (typically about 60 fruits), candy the peels, then juice the leftover fruits. I divide the juice in half; one half goes straight in to a pitcher (or two) for the family to drink immediately with breakfast, and the other half I use to make a grapefruit syrup (essentially just a simple syrup mixed with grapefruit juice and then reduced down even further) which I then mix with blanco tequila and a sprig of fresh mint and ice in a highball glass and HOLY SHIT IT IS SO DELICIOUS.

But yeah, as others have already mentioned, 14 grapefruits is small potatoes, you shouldn't have any problem getting through those.
posted by saladin at 7:09 AM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]