I usually make vinegar from the peels and cores left over when I'm making pies or applesauce. But one year, drought left us with a crop of very small apples - and the thought of peeling all those little apples was more than I could bear.
So I didn't. I turned the whole crop into apple vinegar instead.
Making vinegar from fruit scraps is one of those old-fashioned skills that sounds much more complicated than it really is. You don't need special equipment or hard-to-find ingredients. You need fruit, sugar, water, a jar, and some patience while nature does most of the work.
How to Make Homemade Fruit Vinegar
When apple season hits and my kitchen counters are covered with peels and cores, I can’t help but think: this is vinegar in the making.
I've made vinegar from apples, pears, plums and even pineapple over the years. It's an easy way to use fruit scraps that might otherwise end up in the compost pile, and there's something very satisfying about turning those scraps into something useful.
If you've never made vinegar before, I'll show you how to make your first batch step by step.
Can you really make vinegar from fruit scraps?
Yes. In fact, apple peels and cores are perfect for making a batch of homemade fruit vinegar.
Fruit naturally contains sugars, and we'll add a little more sugar to help the process along. As the fruit and sugar ferment, yeasts convert the sugars into alcohol. Then acetic acid bacteria convert that alcohol into acetic acid - vinegar.
You don't have to understand all the science to make vinegar successfully, but I think knowing what's happening inside the jar makes the process even more interesting.
And while apples are probably the most familiar choice, you aren't limited to apple scraps. I've also made vinegar with pears, plums and pineapple.
What you need to make homemade fruit vinegar
You don't need any special equipment. You'll need:
- Fruit scraps, such as apple peels and cores
- Sugar
- Non-chlorinated water
- A clean glass jar
- A piece of tightly woven cloth or a coffee filter
- A rubber band or jar ring to hold the cover in place
- A spoon for stirring
- A few spoonfuls of vinegar "with the mother"
While you can make vinegar without a "starter" (a bit of vinegar from a previous batch or a store-bought bottle of natural vinegar "with the mother") it does make the process faster and it's a good addition for your first batch.
Your fruit scraps should be fresh and clean, without mold or rotten spots.
If your tap water is heavily chlorinated, use filtered or bottled water instead. Chlorine can interfere with the microorganisms that make fermentation possible. In a pinch, you can let a container of tap water sit uncovered overnight so the chlorine can evaporate.
How to make vinegar from fruit scraps
Start by filling your clean jar about halfway to two-thirds full with fruit or fruit scraps. Don't pack them tightly.
Next, dissolve sugar in non-chlorinated water and pour it over the fruit, leaving some room at the top of the jar.
Make sure the fruit stays submerged under the liquid as much as possible. Fruit floating above the surface is more likely to mold.
Cover the jar with a tightly woven cloth or coffee filter and secure it with a rubber band or jar ring. Don't use an airtight lid during fermentation. The vinegar needs airflow, but you'll also want to keep vinegar flies out of the liquid. Vinegar flies are harmless, but one or two always seem to show up and I don't want them swimming in my vinegar.
Set the jar in a warm place out of direct sunlight.
For the first stage of fermentation, stir the mixture regularly with a clean spoon and watch for bubbles and other signs of fermentation.
After the fruit has done its job, strain it out and return the liquid to the clean jar. Cover it again with the cloth and let the liquid continue fermenting until it becomes vinegar.
This isn't an instant project. Depending on the temperature in your home and other conditions, the entire process of making vinegar can take several weeks or longer.
That's part of the fun of learning an old-fashioned skill like this. You aren't pushing a button on an appliance and getting an immediate result. You're providing the right conditions and letting a natural process take place.
What fruits can you use to make vinegar?
Apples are a great place to start, especially during apple season when you may have plenty of peels and cores left from making applesauce, apple butter, pies or other recipes.
But you can experiment with other fruits too. I've successfully made vinegar from:
- Apples
- Pears
- Plums
- Pineapple
Use sound, fresh fruit or clean scraps rather than fruit that is spoiled or moldy.
Different fruits will produce vinegar with slightly different flavors, which is part of the fun of experimenting.
What is the mother of vinegar?
Sometimes you'll be able to see the "mother" in a jar of store-bought, natural vinegar, and sometimes it will just look like a bit of sludge in the bottom of the jar.
But at some point of making your own vinegar you might look inside your jar and discover a strange, jelly-like layer floating on top.
Don't panic! While you might think it looks a bit disgusting, it's actually a lovely sight.
This is the "mother of vinegar," a cellulose layer produced by acetic acid bacteria. It can look a little odd if you've never seen one before, but its presence is perfectly normal.
I've had some impressive mothers develop over the years.
Once, I discovered one growing inside the bottle of diluted homemade vinegar that I kept in the shower for rinsing my hair after shampooing.
I went to refill the bottle and realized there was something floating inside it. A new mother had formed right there in the bottle, even though the vinegar wasn't full-strength.
Another time I checked a pint jar where I'd stored the mother from a previous batch of pineapple vinegar. It had grown another layer too - nearly an inch thick.
Nature was apparently quite happy to keep making vinegar whether I was paying attention or not.
You don't have to have such a thick and obvious mother to start your first batch of fruit vinegar. But once you have one, you can save it in another jar with some finished vinegar and use it to help start a future batch.
How do you know when homemade vinegar is ready?
This is one of the questions that can make first-time vinegar makers nervous.
Your vinegar should smell pleasantly sharp and acidic rather than rotten or unpleasant. As it develops, the flavor will become less alcoholic and more distinctly vinegary.
Taste can help you judge when it's reached a flavor you like.
The process doesn't run according to an exact calendar. Temperature, the kind of fruit you use and the activity of the microorganisms in your particular batch can all affect how quickly it develops.
That's one reason making vinegar teaches you to observe rather than simply follow a timer.
What's normal - and what isn't?
Fermentation can look strange if you aren't accustomed to it. Bubbles, sediment, cloudiness and a mother forming on the surface can all be normal parts of the process.
Fuzzy mold is not.
If you see fuzzy mold or your batch smells rotten or putrid rather than fermented and acidic, discard it and start over again.
Keeping your fruit submerged, using clean equipment and stirring regularly during the early stage will help prevent problems.
How to store homemade vinegar
Once you're happy with the flavor of your vinegar, strain it if needed and pour it into a clean glass bottle or jar and add a label. Store your finished vinegar in a cool, dark place.
Don't be surprised if another mother eventually forms in the bottle. As my shower bottle demonstrated, homemade vinegar sometimes continues doing its thing when you aren't looking.
You can strain the mother out, leave it alone, or save it in some vinegar for your next batch.
How can you use homemade fruit vinegar?
One of the reasons I enjoy making vinegar is that it has so many uses around the home.
Depending on the fruit and flavor, you can use homemade vinegar in salad dressings, marinades, sauces and other recipes where you enjoy its flavor.
I've also used homemade vinegar diluted with water as a hair rinse, and vinegar has many traditional household uses.
But there is one important exception.
Don't use homemade vinegar for canning recipes that require 5% acidity
The acidity of homemade vinegar isn't standardized, and you can't determine its acidity simply by tasting it.
For tested home-canning and pickling recipes that specify vinegar with 5% acidity, use commercially produced vinegar labeled as 5% acidity unless you have had your homemade vinegar properly tested.
That's one place where knowing how to make something doesn't mean it should automatically replace the store-bought version for every use.
Get my free guide to making vinegar at home
If you'd like to try making your own fruit vinegar, I've put together a free beginner-friendly guide you can download and keep.
How to Make Vinegar at Home… for Pennies! walks you through the process step by step, including the proportions you'll need, which fruits to use, how to tell when your vinegar is ready, and how to store your finished vinegar.
Learn one more useful skill
You don't have to make everything from scratch to be resourceful. And learning to make vinegar doesn't mean you'll never buy another bottle at the grocery store.
You might make one batch and decide that buying vinegar is much more convenient. But you'll know how it's made.
You'll know that apple peels and cores aren't necessarily waste. You'll be a more-informed consumer if you purchase vinegar. And you'll have learned how to take a few very ordinary ingredients and turn them into something useful.
That's one more practical skill you didn't have before.
I've found over the years that learning skills like this does more than teach us how to make or do something. Each new skill builds a little more confidence.
Once we've been successful with a project like this, we're more confident to try another project, another experiment.
We become more willing to try the next thing because we've already proven to ourselves that we can learn.
You don't need to know how to do everything. Pick the projects that bring you joy, knowing that you can do whatever you set your mind to.
Just keep learning one more thing.
Kathi Rodgers is the gardener and writer behind Oak Hill Homestead (est. 2006) and the host of HOMEGROWN: Your Backyard Garden Podcast. With over 30 years of gardening experience in a variety of climates and soils, she helps new and aspiring gardeners grow healthy, organic food right in their own backyards.
A passionate advocate for simple, self-reliant living, Kathi is the author of multiple ebooks, a published magazine contributor, and shares practical advice with readers who want real-life solutions they can trust.
Kathi lives in Oklahoma, where she grows more cherry tomatoes than she can count and keeps a watchful eye on tornado season. A proud grandma and great-grandma, she believes that wisdom - like a bountiful garden harvest - should be shared.
