With a vegetable peeler, peel off long sections of grapefruit peel, leaving behind the white, bitter pith. When you have peeled the whole grapefruit thusly, cut or tear the peels into small pieces between 1" and 1.5". Boil for twenty minutes. Drain off the orangey water. Boil for twenty more minutes. Drain. Boil for twenty more minutes. Drain.

 NOTE: Do not allow the grapefruit-infused steam to get into your eyes as you drain. This warning was NOT in the recipe I found.

Set aside the limp, steaming grapefruit peels. Boil 1 1/2 cup of sugar in 1 cup of water. Stir so that the sugar is completely dissolved. When the sugar is dissolved, add back the grapefruit peel. Reduce heat to a simmer. Stir very often for about 40 minutes. Near the 40 minute mark, you'll notice that the sugar is starting to recrystalize. When the sugar is no longer easily scraped off the side of the pot with the wooden spoon you've been stirring with, you're done.

Dump out the candied grapefruit peel onto waxed paper. Separate all the pieces carefully (they're hot!) and let cool and harden.

 Time-consuming, but amazingly easy.

 Orange peel works the same way. If you leave the pieces a little longer, you can dip them in chocolate (I used Hershey's chocolate bar), put them on wax paper to set. They're good for nibbles at the holidays. 

JennyC:

but my husband insists there's arsenic in the peel. Has anyone seen any references on this?

So far this is all I have found...

"Orange peels may be treated with fungicides or other chemicals to help improve shelf life. That's why we'd discourage you from eating very much of it."

Read the whole article

I would think buying organic or growing your own would prevent this.

That's something I have also considered. I posted the recipe because a member was talking about all the grapefruit that were growing in her yard that she didn't seem to know what to do with.

Joyous:

a member was talking about all the grapefruit that were growing in her yard that she didn't seem to know what to do with.

That is a god question. What can be done with grapefruit? I have some coming in an Angel Food fruit package and none of us eat it fresh.

Well, when I was given 3 (!) bushels of grapefruit last Christmas, I found out there aren't a lot of things to do with grapefruit except eat it fresh by itself or in fruit salads or squeeze it into juice. That's why I ended up making so much candy out of it (they came out of her orchard, and I don't think she uses pesticides or fungicides, but I didn't think to check, honestly.)  If you search for recipes by "grapefruit" as your ingredient, you'll get recipes that call for "1/8 tsp grapefruit zest" or "a splash of grapefruit juice." Let me tell you, when you are staring at THREE bushels of grapefruit, a splash of juice or an 1/8 tsp zest is not going to make a dent.

Joyous:

Let me tell you, when you are staring at THREE bushels of grapefruit, a splash of juice or an 1/8 tsp zest is not going to make a dent.

I would guess not! I won't have but a few. We eat all the other things in the package so it was worth getting. I am just not sure what to do with the grapefruit.

My late aunt used to make this but with orange peel.  I haven't had a chance to duplicate the recipe and make it myself.  Last year with our Holiday Fruit box from Angel Food, we made four-fruit marmalade.  It's delicious!  Grapefruit marmalade, someone said.  I say "Mmmmm!"

bumping  up for xmas