Apple scrap vinegar

I’m a big fan of cider vinegar.

Great to drink, make preserves, salad dressing and superb for washing your hair; I use it weekly and it gives my hair a real shine and softness.

Tip: close your eyes tightly when doing the hair wash and leave it on for a few minutes.

Anyway, however you use it, it’s a better alternative to normal harsh vinegar.

Making: Apple Scrap Vinegar

It is just so easy.

Here's the recipe and instructions ...

Apple scrap vinegar: you can drink it straight, use it as a household cleaner, drizzle it over your favourite salad and rinse your hair in it. Let’s talk about how seriously good this stuff is, as well as being crazy easy to make.

While not being new to the wonderful world of fermenting, apple scrap vinegar was something that up until now I hadn’t made. I’d used it in cooking, I had drunk it and I knew my hair benefitted from rinsing with it, but making it from scratch? Nope, I hadn’t gone there yet.

With a stash of apples from the markets, cake plans for lunch, it seemed like a good idea to have a second look at those apple cores and skins, and pips.

Sure, they could have been composted, stuck in the worm farm or off loaded to the neighbour’s chooks. But making a healthy, beneficial bacteria loaded vinegar from the scraps, seemed like a pretty darn good alternative.

So what to do first?

Eat the apples of course, (there is an Upside Down Apple Cake recipe at the end of the post if you are keen for another eating idea.)

When making the vinegar, you can put whole chopped apples in if you would like, or simply just use the discarded parts.

Once you’ve got your appley bits. You’ll need a clean wide mouthed vessel in which to ferment your vinegar in. Being wide mouthed, it encourages a larger surface area for the natural yeasts to work their magic.

Apple scrap vinegar can be used in all the same ways you use apple cider vinegar, but because it’s not made from cider (which is 100% apples that have been crushed and then left to ferment) it’s got a different name.

Apple Scrap Vinegar: what you’ll need

• Roughly 1 kilo apple scraps (bruised apples are also fine to pop in)
• 1 litre of cool boiled water
• 4 tablespoons of sugar

Dissolve your sugar in a little of the water, (make it hot for easier dissolving.) Then cool to room temperature, before adding the apples and remaining water. Leave space of about 5cms for the mixture to bubble up. Cover with muslin and a rubber band. You want that air circulating over the top of the apple mixture.

Each day, check in on it. Observe the changes, smell it and give it a bit of a mix every few days. If your chunky apple mixture keeps floating to the top, find something to weigh it down, the water mixture should be covering the top.

Depending on the temperature in your kitchen, this process can take from 1 week to 4, if it’s cooler, it will be slower. A foamy layer will develop on the top of the apple mixture, and underneath? Apple scrap vinegar will slowly be created.

If you keep checking on it, you are getting to know the changes. Also adding to the understanding of how the whole fermentation process works.

When it’s stopped bubbling, and the apple pieces settle towards the bottom, it’s ready to be strained.

Strain out and pour the liquid back into the glass jar. Replace the muslin and rubber band. This second fermentation can take upwards from 2 weeks to 6 months. Depends on temperature, and depends on your taste buds.

From that initial extra two-week fermentation process, taste it intermittently.

If it’s tasting like vinegar, and rather excellent on your palate? You’re done. If it’s still sweet tasting and not quite there yet, give it another week or so and try again.

Once you’re happy with the taste, cap it, store it in a cool dark spot and enjoy in all your usual apple cider vinegar ways.

Here's a link to the recipe