Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar

Let me show you how easy it is to make your own apple cider vinegar. All you need is to save all your apple peels and cores when you’re making apple dishes.

Ahhh, fall season …

I can’t wait for all the different varieties of apples showing up in our farmers’ markets. I get particularly excited about all the heirloom apples. So much so that we will plant some heirloom apple trees this fall.

There are so many ways to use apples in recipes:

Apple cobblers, apple pies, apple sauce, apple pancakes, apple scones – or just eating them raw.

Maybe you have seen my post on how to make canned apple pie filling. This is perfect for when you have a lot of apples for can’t eat them all at once. With canned apple pie filling you can have apple pies long after the harvest is done.

Whatever you do with your apples, most likely you’ll wind up with apple cores and peels.

Instead of throwing them into the compost or trash, let me show you how easy it is to make homemade apple cider vinegar.

How to collect apple scraps

Next time, you’re using apples, keep all the scraps. Now for making apple cider vinegar, make sure you don’t have any moldy or mushy parts. But all the peels, cores, and other parts work well!

If you’re just using a few apples at a time, simply place the scraps in a ziplock bag and place them in the freezer. For this recipe, I am using about two good handfuls of peels and cores. Don’t worry if they turn brown!

Ingredients for Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar

Other than your apple scraps you will need

• 2 TBSP of sugar
• about 2 cups of water
• 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar (if you’re more the impatient type, like me)

Helpful tools and equipment

• a quart-size mason jar (or any other jar big enough to hold your apple cores and peels; you can get them here)
• one coffee filter or small dish towel to cover the jar
• a rubber band

How to make Apple Cider Vinegar

Place all your apple peels and apple cores in your mason jar. It should be big enough so that the apple scraps only fill about 3/4 of the jar.

To speed up the process you can now add about 1/4 cups of ready-made apple cider vinegar. It will be even better if your ACV has some mother in it. Mother you ask? It’s these floating, stringy pieces.

Dissolve the sugar in the 2 cups of water. As you can see, I am using coconut sugar. I am sure you can use brown sugar or white sugar, depending on what you have on hand.

Pour the sugar water over the apple scraps and press them down. You can use a little sterilized rock or fermenting weight to keep the scraps down.

Place the coffee filter or small cotton towel over the jar to keep critters out and secure with a rubber band.

Set your jar in a somewhat dark spot. You can shake it gently every so often. After about 2 weeks (you can check earlier), taste your vinegar. If it is still more sweet than pleasantly sour, let it ferment longer. Once your apple cider vinegar has reached your desired taste, you can strain out the scraps.

I always like filling my homemade apple cider vinegar into a pretty bottle.

How to use your homemade apple cider vinegar

Aside from apple cider vinegar’s health benefits, there are so many ways you can use it in your kitchen. In an effort to add more probiotics to your diet, you can add a good splash of ACV to a glass of water and add any or no sweetener (I often use stevia, but regular sugar works, too).

Apple cider vinegar tastes great in homemade dressings and sauces.

I often add 2 TSBP to the water when I am making homemade bone broth. This is said to draw the minerals out of the bones.

You can use ACV instead of other vinegars.

Lastly, you can use it in your personal care routine – but that is the topic for a future blog post ….

Let me know if you have any questions or comments below!

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