Making traditional cider vinegar at home

Why the glut is worth bottling

A good autumn in an English orchard leaves you with more than you can eat, freeze, or press into juice. It also leaves you with a bucket of peelings and cores, and it is a genuine waste to put those on the compost heap. They carry the same sugars, the same wild yeasts, and much of the same flavour as the fruit they came from. With nothing more than water, a little sugar, and time in a warm corner of the kitchen, they will turn into a sharp, cloudy cider vinegar that costs you almost nothing and tastes far better than the pale stuff from the supermarket.

This is old-fashioned country thrift, and it is forgiving. The method below is the one I have used for years in a draughty Herefordshire kitchen, and it works with Bramleys, Coxes, russets, or whatever mixture your trees have given you.

What you will need

• A large glass jar or food-grade bucket, big enough to hold the scraps with plenty of headroom
• A wide-mouthed glass jar for the second stage — a Kilner jar with the rubber seal removed is ideal
• Muslin, a clean tea towel, or a piece of old linen, plus string or an elastic band
• Around 1 kg of apple peelings and cores, ideally from unsprayed fruit and roughly chopped
• 1.5 litres of water — rainwater or filtered if your tap water is heavily chlorinated, as chlorine can stall the ferment
• 100 g of demerara sugar, or honey if you prefer
• A wooden spoon kept for the purpose, and a clean jug

Sterilise everything that will touch the liquid. A good rinse with boiling water is enough for glass; a little food-grade sterilising powder, well rinsed, is better. Vinegar making is a race between the yeasts and bacteria you want and the moulds you do not.

The first ferment: scraps to cider

Tip the peelings and cores into your jar and pour over the water. Add the sugar and stir well with the wooden spoon until it has dissolved. Cover the mouth of the jar with muslin and tie it firmly. This lets air in, which the yeasts need, while keeping out fruit flies — the great enemy of every home fermenter.

Stand the jar somewhere warm and out of direct sunlight, ideally between 18°C and 24°C. Airing cupboard, kitchen shelf beside the boiler, or a south-facing windowsill will all do. Stir it once a day with the wooden spoon, pushing the fruit back under the liquid each time. Within two or three days you should see small bubbles rising and a slight foam on top. That is your wild yeast getting to work.

After seven to ten days the liquid will smell distinctly alcoholic and taste dry and cider-like rather than sweet. Strain it through a double layer of muslin into a clean jug, pressing the pulp gently to get the last of the liquid, then discard the solids. This is your young cider, and it is the base for everything that follows.

The second ferment: cider to vinegar

Pour the strained cider into your wide-mouthed jar. Widen the neck matters: the bacteria that turn alcohol into acetic acid need plenty of surface area and a good supply of oxygen. Cover again with muslin and return it to the same warm spot.

Now comes the patient part. Over the next few weeks the alcohol slowly sours. You may notice a thin, translucent, jelly-like film forming on the surface. That is the vinegar mother, and it is a very good sign — look after it, and it will start your next batch in half the time. If you already have a mother from a previous batch, drop it in at the start of this stage.

Expect the whole transformation to take anywhere from six weeks to three months, depending on temperature. Cooler rooms mean slower vinegar. Taste it every fortnight or so by drawing a little off with a clean spoon.

Knowing when it is ready

Your vinegar is done when it tastes sharply acidic and no longer has any sweetness or alcoholic warmth. If you keep a few pH strips in the kitchen drawer, aim for a reading below 4, and ideally around 3. Below that, it will keep well and pickle safely.

Once it is ready, pour it into sterilised bottles and seal with a cork or screw cap. Store in a cool, dark cupboard. A cloudy sediment will settle over time; this is harmless and entirely traditional, but you can rack the vinegar off into fresh bottles if you want it clearer. It will keep for years, and it improves with age.

If a white, chalky film appears on top, that is kahm yeast and can simply be skimmed off. If you ever see fuzzy mould in green, blue, or black, throw the batch away and start again.

In the kitchen and the pantry

Use your cider vinegar anywhere you would use the bought sort, but expect more character. A splash in a mustardy salad dressing, a spoonful in a slow-braised pork shoulder, or a tablespoon stirred into a chutney will all lift the whole dish. It makes a fine shrub when mixed with sugar and warm water, and it is superb for pickling shallots and beetroot.

It also earns its keep outside the kitchen. A cupful in a warm footbath eases tired feet after a day in the orchard, a diluted rinse leaves hair shiny, and a teaspoon of it with honey in hot water is a much-loved winter soother. Keep a bottle by the stove, another in the pantry, and a third for the household jobs — and next autumn, the peelings will be worth keeping all over again.