Fire Cider with Raw Honey
A classic jar of fire cider: horseradish, ginger, garlic, onion and hot pepper steeped in raw apple cider vinegar for a month, then strained and softened with raw honey. Sharp, hot and warming, a spoonful at a time, or splashed into a glass of water.
Ingredients
Roots & Aromatics
- ½ cup grated fresh horseradish root (about 3 oz, peeled)
- ¼ cup grated fresh ginger (about 2 oz, unpeeled is fine)
- 2 tablespoons grated fresh turmeric root, optional
- 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
- 10 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 1 to 2 fresh hot peppers (jalapeño for medium, habanero for hot), sliced
- 1 lemon, zest in wide strips plus the juice
Vinegar & Seasoning
- 3 cups raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar (5% acidity), plus more to top off
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
From the Hive
- ½ cup Go Honey 100% Pure & Raw Honey, plus more to taste
- 2 tablespoons Go Honey Manuka Honey, optional, stirred in at the end for a darker, earthier finish
Instructions
Prep the Roots
Grate the horseradish, ginger and turmeric on the coarse side of a box grater, then chop the onion and smash the garlic. Wear gloves for the hot peppers and work near an open window — fresh horseradish throws off fumes that will sting your eyes.
Pack the Jar
Layer everything except the vinegar and honey into a clean half-gallon (2-quart) glass jar, pressing down lightly as you go. The solids should come to a little under half the jar — you need real room for 3 cups of vinegar on top.
Cover With Vinegar
Pour in the apple cider vinegar until every piece is submerged by at least an inch, leaving an inch of headspace at the top so the jar has room to slosh when you shake it. Lay a square of parchment over the rim before screwing on the lid — vinegar corrodes bare metal.
Steep Four Weeks
Keep the jar in a cool, dark cupboard for 4 weeks and shake it once a day. Two weeks will give you something drinkable, but the horseradish and garlic need the full month to mellow into each other.
Strain and Press
Pour the whole jar through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth set over a bowl, then gather the cloth and wring it hard — the last squeeze holds most of the heat. You should end up with roughly 2½ cups of infused vinegar.
Sweeten Off the Heat
Stir the raw honey into the room-temperature vinegar until it fully dissolves, which takes a minute or two of patient stirring. Never warm it on the stove — much above 105°F you start flattening the aroma and character of raw honey, which is the whole reason to finish it this way. Taste, add more honey if it is sharper than you like, then bottle and refrigerate for up to a year. Neat off the spoon it is fierce, so dilute it in water if that suits you better. It contains raw honey, so it is not for babies under one year old.
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