Guest Post by Kailyn Shippee from Our New England Home
Every fall my family gathers roughly 40 pounds of apples. Because we avoid refined sugar and processed food, I can our own apple sauce each year. We love it mixed into homemade yogurt or served with whole wheat pancakes for our favorite “breakfast for dinner”.
In the past, I’ve always given some of the scraps (peels and cores) to our chickens and composted the rest. But it still bugged me to have so much of the apple left over, so I decided to try something new.
This year I took a bit of a risk and made my own vinegar. It turns out that it’s actually really easy and was a fun little kitchen experiment. Apple scrap vinegar is very similar in color and taste to apple cider vinegar – the only real difference is that it’s made with scraps instead of juice. And the digestive health benefits are worth the little bit of effort it takes.
Apple Scrap Vinegar
-Large jar (I used a half gallon mason jar)
-Scraps of apples
-Two tablespoons of honey
-Filtered water
Directions
1. Put apple scraps in clean glass jar, leaving an inch of head room.
2. Dissolve two tablespoons of honey in a little warm water and add to the jar.
3. Fill the jar the rest of the way with water. Make sure that all of the apple scraps are covered with water (you might have to poke them down from time to time).
4. Top loosely with some paper towel or cheesecloth and let sit for 2 weeks. You should see bubbles as it ferments.
5. After two weeks, strain and put liquid back into jar. Cover with paper towel and let it continue to ferment for a month or so (taste as you go). Once it tastes as strong as you want it, you can cover it with a jar lid for longer storage.
We love our apple scrap vinegar. I’ve been using it the same way I would use traditional apple cider vinegar and no one in my family has even noticed the difference. I’m excited to have one more thing I can make myself.
Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar – from scraps
Print recipe
Ingredients
- 1 large jar
- apple scraps
- 2 tablespoons honey
- filtered water
Directions
| 1. | Put apple scraps in clean glass jar, leaving an inch of head room. |
| 2. | Dissolve two tablespoons of honey in a little warm water and add to the jar. |
| 3. | Fill the jar the rest of the way with water. Make sure that all of the apple scraps are covered with water (you might have to poke them down from time to time). |
| 4. | Top loosely with some paper towel or cheesecloth and let sit for 2 weeks. You should see bubbles as it ferments. |
| 5. | After two weeks, strain and put liquid back into jar. Cover with paper towel and let it continue to ferment for a month or so (taste as you go). Once it tastes as strong as you want it, you can cover it with a jar lid for longer storage. |
Have you ever made vinegar? I’d love to hear all about it.
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