You won’t believe how easy it is to make homemade apple cider vinegar from apple scraps. It’s so good for you, and it costs less than a penny per tablespoon.
Apple cider vinegar is a staple in my kitchen. It’s perfect for a quick salad dressing, but it has many other uses as well. I add it to my cranberry walnut chicken salad for extra flavor, and it’s a central ingredient in my homemade barbecue sauce. It gives pulled pork the perfect amount of zing.
You can buy apple cider vinegar, but it’s also easy to make from scratch. It costs next to nothing since apple scraps are typically discarded when making apple crisp, applesauce, or other apple treats. If you can make a spot for the jar on your counter, you can make this recipe.
How to Make Apple Cider Vinegar
To make your own apple cider vinegar, submerge apple scraps in water and mix in a little sugar. Use a jar that becomes more narrow at the top so that the apple scraps stay submerged. Cover the jar with butter muslin, a paper towel, or a coffee filter to keep fruit flies away. The mixture will sit at room temperature for a couple weeks to get the process started.
I tried them a couple years ago and immediately became hooked and I decided to start creating my own at home. My first recreation went live almost four years ago (see my grape apple cider vinegar drink recipe here) and I’ve since expanded my testing to come up with four delicious and easy combos that I absolutely adore. I now make one of these apple cider vinegar drinks every day!
Ingredients
Cores and peels from 6 to 8 apples ideally organic
2 tbs sugar
Water to cover
Equipment
4 cup mason jar
Butter muslin
Instructions:
After you use the apples to make an apple treat, place the cores and peels in a large jar. I use a 4-cup mason jar, but you can adjust the size of the jar according to the amount of apple scraps you’re using.
Cover the scraps with water and stir in the sugar.
Place a paper towel or a piece of butter muslin on top of the jar, and secure it with a band. (A coffee filter would work as well.)
Let the mixture soak for 2 weeks at room temperature (I use the back of a cabinet shelf), and then strain out the liquid. Discard the solids, which can be composted at this point.
Return the liquid to the jar and cover it again with a paper towel or butter muslin and band. Leave it for 4 more weeks, stirring daily.
Taste the vinegar and see if it has the acidity you would like. If it does, transfer it to a covered bottle for storage. If not, leave it in the large jar for a little while longer, checking every few days. (You can use it as a household cleaner if the flavor doesn’t come out how you wanted it.)