Rotting Apples? Make your own Apple Cider Vinegar!

Vinegar is so good for you and it is even better when you make it yourself with ingredients from your very own kitchen. A finished batch of organic vinegar is great for housecleaning, cooking, bathing, and skin conditioner. It cleans whatever it touches naturally and removes buildup and residue. I love my home made vinegar. It’s around whenever I need it and you can make it for pennies. Follow along and I will show you how to make your own.

How Would I Ever Use Homemade Vinegar?

Organic vinegar is great for a variety of uses around the house. For example, here are 20 Uses for Apple Cider Vinegar around your house of which you may not even be aware. In addition, here are 6 examples of health benefits of apple cider vinegar from Dr. Axe (with citations), including blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure improvements. With all of these benefits, why wouldn’t you want to use it around your house all of the time? I surely do and the following video shows you the simple recipe for making your own.

Mise en Place

Ok, I hope several of you Google that title while I get you ready for the recipe. It comes from way back in my hospitality days. You can use any fruit you like, so if you have something past it’s prime but not totally rotten, it’s perfect. I gathered my 3 neglected apples along with 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 2 cups of water, and previously fermented vinegar (for a starter). I use a 1-quart Mason jar as a fermentation vessel.

Once you get everything together, clean your apples to remove any pesticides, mold, or other bacteria. Once ready, chop them up into smallish pieces. I like to take out the spoiled sections and the seeds, but that is not necessary. Once your apples are ready, follow along with the rest of the video:

Note: If you have access to a vinegar mother, you can add it instead of the starter vinegar I use in the video. Check out my video on using a mother to make a fruit and a malt vinegar.

Finishing Up

Once you have you mixture in a covered, but not airtight, container, set it in a dark location near room temperature for about 3 weeks. You can feel free to check it every once and a while, but it is best left undisturbed. After 3 weeks, it should be cloudy, a bit murky, and smell sour, like vinegar. At this point, siphon off the fruit and let it mellow another week to ten days in the dark. The longer you leave it, the more acidic it will become.

At this point, you have completed your first batch of vinegar. Congratulations! Go ahead and bottle it up for use, either filtered or unfiltered, whichever you prefer. Once it’s bottled, put on a regular lid on the bottle to halt the fermentation process. Your vinegar will last on the shelf just like a bottle you get from the grocery or health food store.

To make a vinegar mother for future batches, simply reserve some completed vinegar with fresh fruit, sugar and a bit more water and place it back in your dark, warm area to age. Over the next weeks and months, it will grow over the top of your liquid into a cellulose disk. The mother makes the job of turning cider, wine, or beer into vinegar super simple.

The next time you have some fruit past its prime, instead of composting it or throwing it away, turn it into your own organic vinegar. It’s a fun experiment. Plus, you can use it on your next salad or take a teaspoonful to aid in digestion. You will thank me and the environment will thank you.

For the foodies out there, click on this great link to discover the science behind making homemade vinegar.