Fire cider is an immune boosting healthy tonic that is super easy to make! It’s great for boosting immunity, improving circulation, and combating a cold. Learn how to make fire cider with this simple recipe.
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Fire Cider History
The term “fire cider” was first coined by Rosemary Gladstar, herbalist and author of the books Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide and Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health, both of which are excellent.
There has been a bit of a trademark controversy in recent years over the name “fire cider,” but I’m not going to get too much into that. Thankfully, the right people won!
Get more winter wellness recipes for teas, infusions, syrups, honey ferments, oxymels, and gummies in my ebook Herbal Immune Support: Homemade Recipes for Wellness!
Fire Cider Recipe
I’m really excited about this because fire cider is something that I’ve wanted to make for a long time, but for some reason haven’t… until now!
This recipe is from the Herbal Academy’s Intermediate Herbal Course, and it is adapted from Rosemary Gladstar.
Make the Fire Cider
First layer all the ingredients into a quart sized jar, and squeeze in the lemon or orange juice. Then cover everything with raw apple cider vinegar.
I am lucky enough to have access to fresh turmeric root, so that is what I used, but dried works perfectly well.
I used jalapeños, which aren’t quite as hot as some peppers, but you can use any extra spicy pepper you like if you’re feeling up to it.
I also did not grate the ginger and horseradish, I sliced them. It really doesn’t matter all that much how you do it in my opinion.
Cover with a plastic lid, or use a piece of parchment or wax paper to keep the vinegar from touching the metal lid.
Shake well and keep in a dark and cool place for one month. Try to remember to shake your fire cider daily.
After one month has passed, use cheesecloth to strain out the herbs, and pour the vinegar into a clean jar. While straining, squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can.
Add ¼ cup of honey and stir well until thoroughly incorporated. Taste your cider and add up to another ¼ cup of honey if you feel it’s needed.
How to Use Fire Cider
According to the Herbal Academy, “Fire Cider can be taken a little bit every day to boost immunity and circulation and keep viruses and bacteria at bay.
Rosemary Gladstar recommends taking 1 tablespoon daily to warm you up and 3 tablespoons daily at the first sign of a cold.”
Take a spoonful, or even half a shot glass full if you’re brave, whenever you start to feel under the weather. It can also be used as a general immune booster and taken daily during the cold and flu season.
Fire cider is spicy from the hot peppers, horseradish, and ginger, but in a surprisingly good way! I thought it was going to taste awful, but I actually love it.
This will definitely be something I use all winter long to keep sickness at bay!
Other Herbs and Spices for Fire Cider
Feel free to add in other herbs and spices to your fire cider as well, such as thyme, cayenne, rose hips, ginseng, lime, grapefruit, schizandra berries, astragalus, parsley, burdock, oregano, and/or peppercorns.
Mountain Rose Herbs is my favorite place to get organic dried herbs and spices.
I was inspired to finally make fire cider this season because it’s one of the recipes in the online Intermediate Herbal Course that I’m taking at the Herbal Academy.
There are many more awesome herbal recipes and so much to learn there, I highly recommend their courses!
More Herbal Remedies for Cold & Flu
Kick your cold to the curb with these other herbal remedies!
- Elderberry Syrup
- Pine Needle Cough Syrup
- Fermented Honey Garlic
- Manuka Honey Vinegar Elixir
- Immune Boosting Herbal Tea
- Elderberry & Echinacea Tincture
Fire Cider Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup fresh ginger grated or sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh horseradish root grated or sliced
- 1 medium organic onion chopped
- 10 cloves organic garlic crushed or chopped
- 2 organic jalapeno peppers sliced
- 2 sprigs fresh organic rosemary or 2 tbsp dried
- 1 tbsp organic turmeric powder or 1/4 c fresh, grated or sliced
- 1 organic lemon or orange zested and juiced
- 4 cups raw apple cider vinegar more or less to fill the jar
- 1/4 cup raw honey more or less to taste
Instructions
- Place the ginger root, horseradish root, onion, garlic, jalapenos, rosemary, and turmeric into a quart-sized mason jar. Add the citrus zest and juice.
- Fill the jar with the apple cider vinegar.
- Cover the jar with a plastic lid, or use a piece of parchment or wax paper to keep the vinegar from touching the metal lid. Shake well, then place in a dark and cool place for one month. Try to remember to shake your fire cider daily.
- After one month, strain the fire cider through cheesecloth into a clean jar. While straining, squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can.
- Add 1/4 cup of honey and stir well until thoroughly incorporated. Taste your cider and add up to another 1/4 cup of honey if you feel it’s needed. Drink a tablespoon fire cider (or more!) each day.
Hi Colleen! I’m totally new to herbal remedies and to fermentation and was wondering if the cider should actually get a few bubbles a few days in? It’s been 4-5 days now and I still don’t see any forming. I’ve read from someone else’s comment that it’s more an infusion than a fermentation, but would rather double check since last time I tried fermenting something my partner had a bad afternoon and I’m super wary of food safety now 😅
FYI, I’ve halved the ingredients and am using a 1/2 litre Weck jar with glass lid, silicone ring and 2 clips. The jar might be a little too full as in the liquid touches the lid, but I wanted to make the most of the small jar for my first experiment.
Thanks in advance and keep up the good work 😊
Hi there. This is not a fermentation recipe, so there shouldn’t be any bubbles.
I’ve been burping mine daily. There’s no fizz to it; is that normal?
It’s not fermenting, it’s pickling, so there shouldn’t be fizz. Cap and store for a month. There’s no need to burp it.
This is wonderful as I have been making it for years now —I used to always have a sniffle or be down with the flu however since taking a daily shot of Fire Cider I have been sick and sinus free for at least 5 years! I take it year round and make it in big old fashioned myo jars so always have a jar brewing! I don’t throw out the “spent” ingredients just eat them or use in stews and stir frys. Thank you for this recipe Colleen
yvonne
Wow, Yvonne, that is so great to hear! Fire cider really is the best medicine!
I have made this for decades but a little different process. I use equal parts of fresh, organic, horseradish, white onion, ginger, garlic, garlic, and the hottest pepper I can find. I chop it all up and then blend it into a pulp. Once that is done, I fill a jar 1/2 full then fill the rest with ACV. I keep in my pantry for about a month, shaking the jar about 3-4 times a week. The pulp separates from the vinegar. I take out the vinegar by spoonfuls and have that daily. The pulp can be used to cook with, bloody marys, salad dressing, etc. Once I use all the vinegar up I simply add more to the existing pulp and start the shaking and soaking again. Over all the years ( a lot) I have been making this medicine, my pulp lasts at least a year if I do a batch in a quart jar. The best!
I have a question, if you are not used to things that are spicy will you be able to handle this with the jalapeños? Or can we leave them out? Catchup is my max I’m spiciness. And how much do take a day
Hi Erin. You can either leave the jalapenos out of the recipe or dilute your finished product with more vinegar. I’ll usually drink about a shot (1.5 oz.) per day. Enjoy!
I don’t like hot either, I’m a big baby! BUT. If you take a shot of it right to the back of the throat in a min or two it stops burning and it numbs the throat if it’s sore
Is there a good reason to just soak the ingredients and not blend it all in a blender? That’d be a lot easier :)
Hi Maraly. The vegetables need to infuse into the vinegar for a month before straining. Blending everything together would make it a lot more difficult to strain unless you’re planning on skipping that step. Either way, it’ll still need a month to infuse.
I started a batch of this today, but was only able to get about 1 cup of ACV in with everything else in the jar… will I be able to top it off at some point? Should I put it into a larger jar?
I would try using a larger jar.
Just tested my first batch of fire cider today and it came out so tasty! I followed this recipe and added 1 small beet which gave it a beautiful deep pink color and that sweet, earthy flavor that I love. I saved the veggies to use as soup base and salad dressing with a little lemon zest, olive oil and a tiny bit of orange blossom water and it was super tasty!
Hi, Makeda! Yay, I’m so glad you liked it! Using the leftover veggies as a salad dressing and soup base are both great ideas.
I have a apple farm make my own apple cider vinegar , with the mother, happy to sell it to your customers in bulk or bottled thank you Kelly farmersdaughtercs @gmail.com
Hi, we love it her but we were asking: Are the ingredients fermenting in the vinagar ore just giving their taste to the vinagar?
I have been making this for 2 years and it really works. But the ACV is a problem for my old weak teeth and sensitive mucous membranes, so I use vodka instead. Dangerously delicious! No more than 15 ml per dose or you feel the alcohol. I grate everything and use it after 2 weeks, figuring that the alcohol draws out the juices quicker then vinegar. The left over material I use in cooking, whether vinegar or vodka infused. Next time I will infuse for a full month to see if it is significantly stronger in flavour.
I added some honey into the cider in the beginning on accident before I read that you add it in later. Will this affect the cider? Why do you add it in after 1 week? Thank you for the wonderful recipe! I look forward to seeing how it turns out!
I did exactly the same and wondering if it will affect the cider.
How did yours turned out?
Hating to throw away the goodies after straining so I chopped up one batch and left it in the mixture and actually “eat” it with the cider. I also reuse and refresh by adding new ingredients to old and keep it going.
You can also make a drink with the cider like I do ACV by adding water and honey to taste. Easier on the stomach and refreshing!
I have noticed more energy and if I drink some later in the night it wakes me up. Love that I am not tired anymore and allergies are basically gone!
Does it go in the fridge or stay at room temperature once you make it?
I usually keep it at room temperature and it will last for a long time that way!
This stuff really works..!!! warning, It WILL make you cough.! or it did me.!! My son loves to use it for his salad dressing. (he likes spicy things, And vinegar.!)
I’ve been trying my hand at a few sipping vinegars and some cider as well. This seems like an interesting recipe to try. Thanks.
Hello everyone.. That looks great! I am definitely going to make it, although will have to start growing horseradish… in a tub, yes, lest it take over my garden :)
Is this combination of ingredients good for hypertension, bad for hypertension, or indifferent for hypertension, please? Thank you for such wonderful articles, Colleen.:)
I’ve been wanting to make this for years. This year I’m going to do it. Great article!
What is shelf life? Does it need to be processed in canner?
Because of the vinegar, it will last a long time! I can’t give you an exact time frame, but I would guess up to a year or even more. I wouldn’t process it in a canner as that will kill all of the good bacteria in the raw ACV :)
This sounds really good. Can you refill with more cider vinegar and brew another batch using the same “vegetables” or do you need to thorw these out and start again? I was thinking you might be able to do something along the lines of making ginger beer where the batch gets used over again.
You could do that, but it wouldn’t be nearly as strong. Ginger beer is a bit different because there is fermentation involved, so you can keep a starter alive for a long time. Fire cider is really more of an infusion, so would be weaker if you reused the veggies.
This is amazing! My husband was under the weather so I did and early strain with one of the jars (about 2 weeks in) added some honey. We both thought it actually had a pleasant taste. Definitely putting this in regular rotation!
We have been making this for about 5 months now and we feel great. We love it! The health benifits from this are incredible. We make it in a half gallon jar with a spout on it, lasts us a month or more taking a shot daily. We always have one “brewing” while we are using the other one so that we never run out. Costs about $16 dollars to make a batch of this size compared to $125 on the Internet for “fire cider” and it’s fun to make.
Forgot to mention that we also turn the heat up a bit and use habanero instead of jalapeños
I made some two weeks ago. The recipe I used said we could use it after a few days, so we did. It sure did cut the time hubby & I were down with a cold. Going to make another batch today, and add the lemon. The recipe I used said to add lemon & honey as you use it. I’ll try it this way and add some fresh rosemary from my garden.
I was glad you mentioned Rosemary as I was thing the same thing.
Sounds like it could warm up a cold morning! Thanks, Colleen!