There’s no denying it any longer. Skies are grey and often filled w/ rain, leaves line the sidewalks in swaths of gold, and I now need to turn the kitchen light on to eat breakfast at 7:30AM. Winter’s coming, friends and it’s time to prepare.
My medicine cabinet is crammed full w/ tinctures like echinacea and st. joan’s wort, my slow-cooker’s working overtime making broths + chaga-mushroom tonics and, at the bottom of my kitchen cupboard, a jar of green fire cider is currently infusing away.
Fire cider is more than just a magickal-sounding name. It’s an effective remedy against all sorts of Winter-y things. Things like colds and flus, poor circulation, sluggish digestion and even the Winter blues.
The traditional preparation of fire cider consists of a number of pungent roots and herbs submerged in apple cider vinegar and steeped (and agitated daily) for at least 6 weeks, then strained and mixed w/ honey. Time allows the medicinal constituents of these roots and herbs to be extracted into the vinegar and the addition of soothing, antiviral, immune-boosting honey creates quite the elixir.
This version utilizes the nettle (or green) vinegar I made last Spring. Herbal vinegar is a tasty method for extracting minerals from your favorite green thing. (Common herbs like mint, sage, lemonbalm and rosemary all make wonderful vinegars). It takes 6 weeks to extract all the plant-magick, so if you don’t have any herbal vinegar on hand just substitute plain ol’ apple cider vinegar instead.
I don't list specific amounts for the ingredients b/c it depends on the size of yr jar and, really, what you have on hand. Experiment! And enjoy in good Winter-y health!
Ingredients
- Ginger-root, grated
- Turmeric root, grated
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 12 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 hot peppers, sliced in half
- 2 lemons, sliced in half and juiced (use the rinds!)
- Few sprigs rosemary
- Few sprigs thyme
- Herbal vinegar
- Honey
Directions
- Place all ingredients in a large glass jar. Cover w/ herbal vinegar until all other ingredients are submerged in liquid. Seal w/ glass or plastic lid. If using a metal lid (like w/ most canning jars) line w/ parchment paper as the metal will rust and contaminate the cider.
- Infuse for 6 weeks, agitating daily.
- Strain cider into a glass jar and mix w/ few spoons of honey to taste.
- Seal and store in fridge. Will keep for as long as it lasts (1 year or so).
Awesome! I’m reminded of Thieves Vinegar that I’ve made a number of gallon batches of recommend universally (culinary, medicinal, even house-cleaning!).
I take it that the lemon rinds are included after squeezing.
I’m looking forward to making this batch soon!
Hi there Chef,
Just edited the post to clarify, but yep! definitely include those rinds! Happy infusing and let me know how it turns out.
L
Hi Lauren,
not knowing at all the fire cider, I did some seeking in the web and found different ways to take it.
I read that after the 6 weeks, you have to extract the vinegar, and even squeeze the pulp.
Do you have any suggestion for us? Do you take a straight spoon of it or you mix it with something else?
Thanks for your great recipes!
Daniele
Salut Daniele,
So glad you’re enjoying the blog! Yep, after 6 weeks you strain (or extract) the cider into a jar and mix it w/ some honey. I usually just take a spoonful straight up when I’m feeling a cold coming on, but you could also mix a spoonful into a tisane –ginger would work nicely — if that’s too intense.
Thank you for reading and let me know how you find it!
L