Fire cider: a safer way to make the spicy vinegar tonic at home

Fire cider is a modern name for an old kind of kitchen preparation: pungent roots and peppers steeped in vinegar until the vinegar takes on their heat, then sweetened. Recipes usually combine horseradish, ginger, garlic, onion and chili, sometimes with turmeric, citrus peel and herbs, in raw apple cider vinegar, and finish with honey. People take it by the spoonful in winter.

Most online recipes pack a jar to the brim with vegetables and top it up with vinegar. That is the step we have changed. Extension services class any vinegar with added vegetables or herbs as a flavored vinegar, and their guidance limits how much plant material goes in, because vegetables carry bacteria and mold spores and add water that dilutes the acid Colostate.

Colorado State University Extension’s flavored-vinegar guide is the basis for the method above. It calls for commercially produced vinegar to ensure proper acidity, sterilizing jars for 10 minutes in simmering water, heating the vinegar to just below boiling before adding it, and using 1 to 2 cups of vegetables per pint of vinegar. The greatest flavor comes after three to four weeks. Refrigerated, flavored vinegar keeps up to six to eight months; in a cool, dark place at 65°F or below, up to three months Colostate.

Oregon State University Extension gives the same signs of spoilage: if a flavored vinegar molds or shows bubbling, cloudiness or sliminess, discard it without tasting. It also recommends refrigeration for freshness and notes that most flavors develop in 10 days and peak at three to four weeks Oregonstate. The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends cider vinegar of 5 percent acidity and warns never to use a vinegar of unknown acidity in a preserved food Nchfp.

We found no clinical trials of fire cider as a mixture, so there is nothing to grade for it directly. Each main ingredient has its own page and its own evidence:

• Vinegar. A meta-analysis of clinical trials found vinegar taken with a meal lowered the rise in blood sugar and insulin afterward Shishehbor 2017. That is the moderate-grade use on our apple cider vinegar page; claims about cleansing or alkalizing the body are not supported.
• Garlic, ginger and honey. Their graded uses (blood pressure for garlic supplements, nausea for ginger, children’s cough for honey) come from specific preparations and doses, not a spoonful of steeped vinegar. See garlic, ginger and honey.

So make fire cider because you like it on greens, in a dressing or in hot water with honey on a cold night. Do not expect it to stop a cold: see the colds page for what has been tested.

Vinegar is an acid. In a lab study, five vinegars dissolved minerals from human tooth enamel, and the loss grew with longer contact Willershausen 2014. A spoonful diluted in water or used in food, followed by a rinse with plain water, is gentler on teeth than sipping it neat. Concentrated vinegar products can also injure the throat: a reported injury from an apple cider vinegar tablet prompted a study of eight tablet brands, which found wide variation in acidity and labeling Hill 2005.

If you sweeten it with honey, it is not for babies under 12 months old, because honey can carry the spores that cause infant botulism MedlinePlus. Garlic in medicinal amounts can matter alongside blood thinners: see garlic and anticoagulants.

If you would rather buy it, iHerb lists commercial fire cider tonics; read the label for the vinegar base and honey content.