We add wine vinegar to our menu practically every day to salads for dressings and sauces. So why not make a healthy apple-based vinegar yourself. In addition to balsamic vinegar, I practically eliminated other vinegar from my diet.
When is it best to stock up on apple cider vinegar?
First, of course, when apples are generally available and are fresh, that is, in late summer and early fall. Then we also often make a lot of delicacies from apples, such as cakes, apple muffins, and many more.
Apple vinegar is used not only in the kitchen. However, this is a topic for the entire article.
How to choose the best ingredients for Homemade Apple Vinegar
Apples: The best apples we can choose for homemade apple cider vinegar are those that we buy at the nearby market and when the apples are fresh. So it’s late summer or fall. Then we also have a lot of remnants of apples, such as peels or seed nests. It is enough to have about 1 kg of it including whole apples and we can make apple vinegar.
Honey: There are versions of the apple recipe using sugar. One sugar is already a processed product, and we want to have a completely natural effect. The healthier form is honey. I know that this is what my grandmother and great-grandmother did, so I follow them.
Tips and tricks
- The jar should be thoroughly washed and scalded for the fermentation process to be successful.
- When white bloom occurs during the fermentation process, it does not always mean mildew.
- As soon as sediment appears at the bottom of the bottle after straining, it is a natural process. It only means that the vinegar has not been completely drained. This does not affect the quality of the vinegar.
- The apples should be thoroughly washed and scrubbed to avoid contamination. First, wash in cold water and then in warmer water. Even if we have apples from organic farming, we still have pollution in the air, and we should get rid of it.
Homemade Apple Vinegar
Ingredients
- 1 l water
- 1 kg apples, apple peel, apple seed sockets
- 1 tbsp honey
Instructions
- I do apple vinegar when I have a lot of different apple scraps left, for example, when I make an apple cake.
- Thoroughly wash the apples and cut them into pieces. For the vinegar, we use all parts of the apples except the stalks.
- Add honey to boiled warm water, cool it down, and pour over our apples earlier in a scalded jar.
- For vinegar production, we do not use metal spoons or bowls because the bacteria that ferment fermentation react badly with the metal. It includes glass, plastic and wood.
- We cover the jar as soon as I have it ready with a gipsy glass cup.
- I close the lid at night and gently open it for the whole day.
- I wouldn't say I like the version with cloths and rubber bands because everything is dirty when the vinegar ferments. But I can use vinegar in such a jar, too. It is a proven option.
- Apples prepared in this way should be placed in a warm place and mixed well every day to get air inside, promoting fermentation.
- Vinegar production takes from 1 to 3 weeks and depends on the acidity of the apples. The vinegar is ready when it stops fermenting.
- Unfortunately, all the vinegar is thrown away when mould appears, which means that the fermentation did not go in the right direction.The recipe gives about 1 liter of apple vinegar. Store apple cider vinegar in a tightly closed bottle in a dark place.
- You can read more about the properties of apple vinegar on my blog.