Making Fire Cider from the Rime Farm Garden
There are some things you make because they’re practical. Some because they’re delicious and some because you look around the farm and realize, Wait a minute. We grow almost everything we need to make this. That was me when I first started making fire cider. Also me today.
Onions? Ours.
Garlic? Ours.
Jalapeños and habaneros? Ours.
Rosemary and thyme? Ours.
Horseradish? Definitely ours and dug straight out of the ground for the occasion.
We did have to venture beyond Rime Farm for things like citrus, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar. Maine has many virtues. Growing citrus fruit isn’t one of them. Haha.
So, on my birthday, I spent the better part of the morning in the kitchen chopping, slicing, digging, scrubbing, and eventually filling two half-gallon jars with what may be one of the most wonderfully aggressive concoctions I’ve ever made.
Fire cider.
What’s Fire Cider?
Fire cider is a spicy herbal vinegar infusion traditionally made with horseradish, garlic, onion, ginger, hot peppers, and apple cider vinegar. Depending on who’s making it, you’ll also find other ingredients like citrus, herbs, turmeric, cinnamon, peppercorns, honey, and all sorts of things.
The modern fire cider tradition is generally credited to herbalist Rosemary Gladstar. She began making and teaching her version in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Over the years, people changed that basic formula to their own preferences.
That’s the part I love about it. Fire cider is very much a use what you grow and make it your own sort of thing.
It Started With the Horseradish
If you’ve only encountered horseradish neatly grated into a jar, allow me to introduce you to horseradish in its natural state. It’s not pretty.
Ours came out of the Rime Farm garden looking vaguely prehistoric. Ha. It’s got long roots, dirt everywhere, sprouts coming out of the crown, and absolutely no resemblance to anything you’d expect to find in a condiment aisle.
Once scrubbed and trimmed, though, the inside is beautiful. It’s crisp and very pungent. Fresh horseradish contains compounds called glucosinolates. When the root is cut or grated, those compounds break down into substances including allyl isothiocyanate, which is largely responsible for that unmistakable horseradish heat. (I’m such a food science nerd! In other words, cutting fresh horseradish and leaning directly over it is educational. 🙂
What Went Into Our Fire Cider
We didn’t measure everything because fire cider doesn’t really call for that kind of precision and like Bob Ross, I prefer happy little mistakes. We made about a gallon total, divided between two half-gallon jars.
Our two half gallon batches contained the following split between the two jars:
- Rime Farm onions – one giant one
- Rime Farm garlic – about 12 big cloves
- Rime Farm horseradish – maybe 3/4 cup or so
- Rime Farm jalapeños – 4 big ones
- Rime Farm habaneros – 2 scotch bonnets
- Rime Farm rosemary – a sprig per half gallon jar
- Rime Farm thyme – a spring per half gallon jar
- Fresh ginger root – a chunk that equaled about 1/2 cup
- Oranges – 2 large
- Lemons – 4 small
- Black peppercorns – about 4 tablespoons
- Ground turmeric – about 4 tablespoons
- One cinnamon stick per half-gallon jar
- Raw apple cider vinegar with the mother to top off the jars
We left the seeds in the hot peppers. This may eventually be the hubris we spoke about.
How We Made It
The actual process couldn’t be much easier.
First, wash everything well, especially anything coming directly from the garden. Scrub the horseradish thoroughly, trim it, and cut away any questionable portions. Peel or scrape it if necessary and chop the firm white root into manageable pieces.
Chop the onions and garlic. Peel and slice the ginger. Slice the jalapeños and habaneros. Gloves are a very good idea when working with hot peppers. One that I fail to do each time. I have learned throughout the years that I touch my face ALOT. Finally, slice the citrus.
Then just layer everything into clean glass jars.
We added the rosemary, thyme, peppercorns, turmeric, and a cinnamon stick to each jar as we went.
Don’t worry about making it beautiful.
Although, frankly, it gets rather beautiful all by itself.
Once the jars were packed, we poured in raw apple cider vinegar until the ingredients were covered.
If you try this, you’ll notice that some of the ingredients immediately float to the top. That’s normal. Just give the jars a shake regularly during the infusion period so everything continues getting thoroughly exposed to the vinegar.
Because vinegar is acidic, I prefer a nonreactive plastic lids rather than allowing it to sit against a conventional metal canning lid for weeks.
Now comes the difficult part:
Wait.
We’ll let ours infuse for about three to four weeks in a cool, dark place, shaking the jars periodically. Then we’ll strain everything out and taste it.
Depending on how ferocious it is, and considering the amount of fresh horseradish, jalapeño, habanero, ginger, and garlic in there, I’m making no predictions. We usually end up adding some honey after straining.
Why Do People Take Fire Cider?
This is where I think it’s important to separate a wonderful traditional food preparation from some of the claims made about it online.
You’ll see fire cider described as an “immune booster,” cold remedy, detoxifier, antimicrobial tonic, digestive cure, and occasionally something just short of bottled immortality. While we wish that were the case, there’s no good clinical evidence showing that fire cider prevents or cures colds, flu, or other infections.
That doesn’t mean the ingredients are without interesting properties.
Ginger has been studied for several potential health effects. Some of the strongest evidence relates to certain types of nausea. Garlic has also been extensively studied. There’s new research into cardiovascular effects such as modest reductions in blood pressure and cholesterol in some circumstances.
Hot peppers contain capsaicin. Citrus provides vitamin C and other plant compounds. Onions and garlic contain numerous sulfur-containing compounds and phytochemicals. Horseradish contains glucosinolates and their breakdown products.
Apple cider vinegar has also been studied for possible effects on post-meal blood glucose and other metabolic measures. With all of that said, none of the research turns vinegar, or fire cider, into a real medical substitute. Still, there’s plenty of interesting biology happening inside these jars so we figure it can’t hurt.
So Why Make It?
Because it’s food, it’s delicious and humans have been infusing plants in vinegar for a very long time.
Also, there’s something cool about taking onions, garlic, peppers, herbs, and horseradish that we grew ourselves and finding another way to preserve them after the growing season ends.
Once strained, fire cider can be taken diluted in water if you enjoy it that way, but it doesn’t have to be treated like a supplement.
It’s essentially a spectacularly flavorful infused vinegar.
I use it in salad dressing. You can also add it to marinades. Splash some into soup or beans. Put it on cooked greens with a little butter. Mix it with oil and a little honey for a vinaigrette.
Just remember that drinking concentrated vinegar straight isn’t particularly kind to your teeth, mouth, esophagus, or stomach. Dilution is your friend.
With our habanero-heavy-containing version, dilution may be everyone’s friend.
From Our Garden to the Jar
Looking at these jars afterward, I realized how much of what’s floating around in that golden vinegar started right here at Rime Farm.
The onions came out of our soil. So did the garlic. The jalapeños and habaneros grew here through the summer. The rosemary and thyme came from our garden and that wonderfully ugly horseradish root went from the ground to the kitchen table and into these jars, too.
We had to buy the things that Maine isn’t particularly inclined to give us…the citrus, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and, we bought the the apple cider vinegar. (We can make our own vinegar but that’s for another day!)
The heart of it is ours. I think that’s what I like most about making something like fire cider.
It’s September. The days are getting shorter. Before long we’ll get our first hard frost, the peppers will be finished, and another growing season will be over.
With fire cider, some of this year’s garden will still be here.
It’ll just be in a jar. Hotter, garlickier and apparently capable of clearing your sinuses from across the room.
That’s our kind of preservation.
— Rime Farm
A quick safety note: Fire cider is food, not a substitute for medical care. Vinegar can irritate the digestive tract and damage tooth enamel when consumed undiluted. Garlic and ginger may also interact with some medications, particularly in concentrated amounts. If you have a medical condition, take prescription medications, or plan to consume large amounts regularly, check with your healthcare provider. 🙂
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