How to make Apple Cider Vinegar with Scraps

Learn how to make apple cider vinegar by using the scraps in your kitchen. This is a great way to use scraps and stock your kitchen with one of natures important ingredients!

I’m all about using scraps for things. Although I would consider myself a minimalist, I also don’t like the idea of just throwing things out. Old kids clothes are made into quilts to keep us warm. Holey wool socks that have breathed their last are turned into dryer balls. Fallen trees on the property are turned into firewood. The rain water that normally falls into the gutters and is funneled away from the house, gets redirected to a rain barrel.

We live in an “outta site, outta mind” culture. When we throw things away, we don’t go visit the landfill and watch them dump our trash on top of the heaps of other trash. But, maybe we should? Maybe we would be better stewards of our stuff and not throw things away so quickly and easily? Hmmmm…

The no waste mindset is in full swing in my kitchen as well. I try not to throw any scraps away, and if I do, they become useful feed for the chickens.

In the fall we have a constant supply of apples. My kids are apple eating machines and it isn’t uncommon for them to go through three apples each, per day! Three apples a day times six kids makes for a lot of apple cores!

On top of that, I am busy making apple sauce, apple pies, and just about anything I can think of to throw apples in. With all these scraps, I like to save some of these cores for apple cider vinegar or apple scrap vinegar.

With just a jar, water, a little sugar, and some apple cores you can turn those scraps into apple cider vinegar in a matter of weeks.

Why make apple cider vinegar

You may be wondering why one would even make apple cider vinegar when you can buy it at the store.

In the store, there are a variety of apple cider vinegar’s and not all are good. The good ones will have floaty things in them (that is a technical term). This means they have bits of the “mother” in them. As long as you buy this kind of apple cider vinegar then yes, you could buy it from the store. But one of our goals has been learning to be self-sufficient. Less reliance on stores and more on our own knowledge.

Now, more than ever, is the time to learn to rely less on the grocery stores and more on our own ability to provide food for our families. With many disruptions in food supply, who knows what will be empty on the shelves next.

Not to mention, this gives you an excuse to use up those scraps and have a product that you can be proud of. A product made in your kitchen instead of a factory.

That really is what it is all about, knowing where your food comes from. I say this a lot, but even those labels that sound healthy at the store can be deceiving.

Benefits of apple cider vinegar

I could write a book about the benefits of apple cider vinegar. But, since it has already been done, I am just going to hit on a few of the benefits…

• It improves gut health. I can’t talk about this enough, but most people walk around with unhealthy or leaky guts. Many health issues can be traced back to your gut. All the more reason to keep that gut healthy!
• It gives you an antioxidant boost. Apple Cider Vinegar contains polyphenols and these babies fight the free radicals in your body. You want those free radicals out because they play a role in forming cancers, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions.
• It kills germs. This is why it makes a great ingredient in your natural cleaning products.

Want to learn more? Check out this article on the Top 10 Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar.

Uses for Apple cider vinegar

So we have established that it is healthy, now let’s talk about its uses, particularly in the kitchen. There are lots of ways to use apple cider vinegar from taking a tsp a day for gut health to using to to clean your countertops. I am going to give you a few ways I use apple cider vinegar in my kitchen..

• Yep, I use it to clean the countertops. I add a little apple cider vinegar, along with a drop of dish soap to a spray bottle and fill it up with water. Give it a shake and it is ready to clean those countertops, the bathroom and whatever else needs germs destroyed.
• I use it to soak things. Grains, legumes, and nuts all contain phytic acid, that unless soaked properly, can leach nutrients from your body. This is one of the reasons America is topping the charts in osteoporosis. In order to prevent this, follow the old methods of preparing food properly. I soak my beans in water and a dash of vinegar overnight and this neutralizes the phytic acid (the leaching nutrient culprit) so that the body can absorb all the nutrients properly.
• I use it as the first step in making bone broth. Apple cider vinegar is excellent at helping get every bit of goodness from the meat bones. I add a dash of vinegar to the water right before I make it.
• I use it to make gummies. And by gummies, I mean, well gummies? I am actually not sure of the official name, but they are like gummies bears just without all the junk. You can make your own healthy version of gummies at home with quality ingredients. When we are under the weather, I like to make apple cider gummies to give us an added boost to our immune system.
• I use it in place of lemons in some recipes. I don’t always have lemons on hand, so when a recipe calls for lemons, not so much for flavor but for the acidic content, I use apple cider vinegar instead. The vinegar goes in apple pies, dressings, and a slew of other recipes. Once, I used it in fig jam because I was out of lemons, and by golly it was delicious!

This is by no means an official list, there are lots of other ways to use apple cider vinegar. You can get creative, I am always finding new ways to use this gem.

Supplies/Ingredients for making apple cider vinegar

glass jar ( something like this would work great)

apple scraps (you may use cores and peels if they have not been sprayed with pesticides, otherwise just use cores)

water (filtered/well water)

sugar

cloth/coffee filter (for covering the jar as it ferments)

How to make apple cider vinegar/apple scrap vinegar

Okay let’s start with the jar. Obviously you need to choose a glass jar based on the amount of scraps you will be using. This does not need to be an actual canning jar as their is no high heat involved, it just needs to be clean. So pick a jar, any jar!

Load up your scraps in the jar, making sure to leave at least 3″ of space at the top, and push it aside for a moment while preparing the sugar water. Now, I don’t always have enough scraps in one day to fill a jar, so I throw cores throughout the week in a ziploc bag and pull it out when I have enough to make the vinegar.

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The ratio of sugar to water is 1 tablespoon per 1 cup of water. Stir sugar into the warm water until completely dissolved.

Now, add this sugar water to the jar completely covering the apple scraps, but leaving at least 1 1/2″ of space at the top.

Cover the top with a coffee filter or scrap cloth and rubber-band in place. Now, sometimes those apple cores decide they don’t want to be submerged, and they float to the top. I just plop a clean glass lid in the jar and force them back down.

Set the jar in a warm, dark place for two weeks. During this two week period you can give it a stir every once in awhile. I always forget to and my vinegar still turns out great!

Once the two week period is up, take out the jar and strain the apple scraps and return the “vinegar” to the jar.

Cover and set back in a warm, dark place for 2-4 more weeks or until it has that “vinegar” smell.

Then, put a lid on it and store it. I store mine right in the pantry.

If your vinegar develops a gelatin circle on top, like the picture above, don’t worry, this is a good thing! It means you have created a vinegar “mother”. This “mother” can be used in creating new batches of apple cider vinegar. I typically store mine inside the vinegar and then take some to use for future batches.

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If it creeps you out, you can strain it and compost it or feed it to your chickens. But, I encourage you to keep it, it makes for better future batches!

~Amanda