DIY Apple Cider Vinegar

Making Apple Cider Vinegar has been about 10 months in the making  It actually began about a year ago. when The Handsome Husband and I bought a house.  As with most home ownership, it has been a lot of work.  Our lives have had some changes since then as well.  I have begun working for the Realtor who sold us the house.  I have also begun watching Dear Friends little girl.  Our home has been full of friends and family.  Our home has been full of laughter and a little crying (me, Lucy’s kids, and Little Thing). We feel at home in our house.  

Part of the hard work we have put into owning a home has been the yard.  The house came with 2 lots (about .4 acres), 2 apple trees, a HUGE garden area, and lots of weeds.  Last fall it wasn’t too much work.  We let everything do it’s thing and we figured we would deal with everything in the spring.  Which later we discovered was a big mistake. But that’s another story for another day.  Since I didn’t have much of a garden (everything in containers), I decided to pick the apples and experiment with them.  I made apple cider. It was really good.  I will be making that again this year.  And I wanted to try my hand at apple cider vinegar.  

I read several articles about making it.  And it’s all actually very easy.  Once you have the apple cider, you just pour it in a jar, cover with muslin and stick in the back of a shelf and leave it. Really just leave it.  Leave it for at least 6 months.  I got busy and maybe a little lazy, and I didn’t get to it for 10 months. I filled two half gallon jars with apple cider.  One of them smelled lightly of vinegar but also smelled bad.  The other smelled strongly of vinegar. I’m not sure what went wrong with the one.

Here’s how I made the vinegar beginning with whole apples.

Items needed:

A bunch of apples
Food processor
Muslin
Strainer
Large bowl that the strainer will fit in but not sit on the bottom
Jars with rings

Wash the apples. Chop them in large pieces and cut out any bad spots. You don’t have to seed them or take out the stems. Throw in as many apples in the food processor as will fit.  Pulse the food processor until the apples are small pieces.  

 

Then give the apples a whirl until you have apple mash.  You may need to scrape the sides occasionally. Place the strainer over the bowl and line the strainer with muslin.  Save a little muslin to cover the jars with.

Pour the apple mash into the strainer. Repeat until you’ve filled the strainer.  

Let it sit for a while, like an hour or so.  Then lift the muslin and squeeze as much as you can out.  I had The Hardworking Husband squeeze mine because his hand are stronger than mine. (All that hard work)  At this point you have apple cider.

Now for the easy part.  Pour that apple cider into jars leaving a little space at the top.  Cover the top of the jar with muslin and put a ring on to hole the muslin in place.  

Put the jar in a dark place that it will be undisturbed.  Leave it for at least 6 months.  It will get mold on the top.  And then form a film like thing on it.  That film like thing is called the mother.  The mother is important to this process.  The apple cider will first become hard cider and then vinegar.

At the end of the 6 months or when you get to it, get out the strainer, bowl, more muslin, and another jar.  Place the strainer over the bowl, line the strainer with muslin.  Then pour the vinegar into the colander.  I had to squeeze out the last of the vinegar.  Pour into a jar and use like you would any other apple cider vinegar.  As you can see I ended up about half the amount than what I started with.

Now that I have finished with the vinegar, I am excited to try some of thing with the vinegar.  I have read about using vinegar to lose weight, help with allergies, and so much more.  Fermented foods are supposed to be very good for you.

Here are a couple books about using apple cider vinegar for your health.
         

 These are affiliate links that help us keep this blog running.  From time to time these books are free.

This post is part of our Outside the Box Mondays Series be sure to check out the whole series.

 

 

 
Check out our link parties.

Did you forget to pin it?