Fire cider is raw apple cider vinegar steeped with pungent roots, onions, garlic and hot peppers, strained after a few weeks and usually sweetened with honey. Vinegars like this have been made in home kitchens for centuries. The name was popularised by the herbalist Rosemary Gladstar in the late 1970s, and every household that makes it ends up with its own version. Many people take a spoonful a day through the colder months.
It is hot, sour and garlicky, with ginger and citrus coming through the longer it sits. Ours goes into the cabinet in October and gets strained in time for the first real cold snap.
What goes in
The base is almost always the same five things:
- Garlic
- Onion
- Ginger root
- Horseradish root
- Hot pepper: cayenne, chili flakes or a fresh jalapeño
After that, it depends on what is in your kitchen and what grows near you. Turmeric, black peppercorns, orange or lemon peel, rosemary, star anise and nettles all turn up in old recipes. There is no wrong version.
Making it from fresh ingredients
A good starting point for a quart jar:
- 1/3 cup grated ginger root
- 1/3 cup grated horseradish root
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 1 head of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 or 2 hot peppers, sliced
- Peel of one orange or lemon
- Raw apple cider vinegar, about three cups, enough to cover
- Honey to taste, after straining
Pack everything into the jar and pour the vinegar over it until the solids are covered. Anything poking above the vinegar can spoil, so press it down.
Making it from our kit
Our Fire Cider Kit holds everything dry: organic onion, garlic, astragalus root, ginger root, orange peel, turmeric root and chili flakes. You add the vinegar.
Place 1/8 to 1/4 cup of the blend in a quart jar. Cover with apple cider vinegar, press the herbs down and shake.
Steeping
Keep the jar in a dark cabinet and shake it whenever you remember, ideally once a day.
Leave it two to five weeks. Taste it from the second week on; it gets hotter and rounder the longer it goes.
Straining and storing
Strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth and press the solids to get every drop out. Stir in honey to taste. Our last batch was good without it, but we added some anyway for the kids.
Store it in a dark cabinet or the fridge and use it within a year.
What to do with it
- Take a spoonful straight, or stir it into a glass of water or warm tea.
- Use it in place of vinegar in a salad dressing: three parts olive oil to one part fire cider, with a little honey and salt.
- Use it as a marinade for chicken or pork.
- Fill a compostable tea bag with the dry kit blend and drop it into soup or stock while it simmers. My favourite is a bag in a pot of beef stew.
If you make a batch, send us a photo or tag us on Instagram. We would like to see what ends up in your jar.