Fire Cider Recipe

Pungent and spicy, this remedy packs a punch to kick winter woes to the curb.

Every home needs at least one immune stimulant remedy on hand to quickly turn to when winter lurgies are doing the rounds. Fire cider could be that for you! Whilst my family tends to favour elderberry syrup, it’s so interesting how sometimes I’ll crave fire cider instead – the wisdom of the body at work. And fire cider is a great remedy to take with you if you’re on hols as it’s shelf stable.

This is a foundational kitchen medicine recipe, using many easily accessible herbs and foods! I love recipes that cross the food-medicine divide and brings herbal remedies right into our kitchen and that was the inspiration of Rosemary Gladstar who first created this remedy.

While we made this recipe at a recent workshop, I had this seriously old song stuck in my head – and I tell ya, I didn’t hold back from sharing 😂

🎤Give it to me baby, uh huh, uh huh…. pretty fly for a white guy… on repeat….. for 2 hours….🎵🎶 (ok, ok, half the time I sang in my head, I wanted people to want to come back to the workshop after all! – I run regular herbal medicine workshops on the Sunshine Coast – come join us! click here)

So in honour of that earworm, I wanna call this new recipe:

Give it to me Baby Fire Cider Recipe

Which also works, cause hopefully it’s so delicious your friends and family will be begging for more!😉

Recipes are great, but understanding the principles (or the ‘why’ behind things) is even better than that’s the how I love to teach herbal medicine.

So this fire cider recipe is more of a recipe framework than a recipe per se as I show you how to easily customise according to taste and what you’ve got on hand.

Don’t have an ingredient? Leave it out.

Want it to have a gentler flavour? Amp up the yummy herbs

Ingredients

• Parchment paper
• Apple cider vinegar
• Honey
• jar with lid (you can use any size jar, match ingredient amounts to your jar – see instructions below)

Core herbs

Make sure at least half your jar consists of these core herbs as they’re the ones doing the immune system heavy lifting (although they all have a role to play!).

I’ll tend to pick 3-4 of these core ingredients and then use in roughly equal parts, although use 1 or 2 herbs if that’s what you’ve got on hand.

• Onion
• Garlic
• ginger
• Horseradish*
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Nasturtium leaves and flowers
• Chillis*

*horseradish and chillis are both strong flavours, even amongst a crowd of strong flavours, so tone these down or leave out if you don’t like things overly spicy

Optional Herbs

For added vitamin C and bioflavonoids: Lemon – sliced, including peel, rosehips, lemongrass (which also has antimicrobial and antiviral properties)

To soften the taste for kids: raisins, cinnamon, blueberries or apples (I haven’t tried, but imagine it’d be nice!?)

Random ideas: herbs like cardamon, cobblers peg, echinacea etc

(Got any other herbs you like to add to your fire cider? I’d love to hear! Just reply to one of my newsletters, or use the contact form to reach out 😊)

To make:

1. Chop and slice your herbs and foods
2. Add to your jar. If using mostly fresh herbs, fill jar ¾ full, if using dried, then fill jar ½ full.
3. Fill jar ¾ full with apple cider vinegar.
4. Fill remaining way with honey (if your honey’s too stiff, gently warm jar in a saucepan of hot water)*
5. Cut parchment paper to cover jar, then screw on lid tightly (the parchment paper is super important if you’re using a metal lid as the vinegar will corrode the lid – yes I’ve had personal experience 😂) Skip if you’re using a plastic lid
6. Shake jar
7. Label jar with ingredients and date made
8. Keep jar in a handy place as you’ll want to shake daily or 3x a week for 4-6 weeks.
9. Strain and taste. If you need to, you can add a bit more honey to make it sweeter.

*Another way to make this (and you might see this on other recipes, is to infuse the herbs in only vinegar. Then once you strain them you’ll add the honey. Depending on your taste, you’ll add 1/4 cup – 1/2 cup honey for every 1 cup vinegar (and you can even increase the honey if needed, although I’d personally explore adding yummier herbs to the blend).

To use:

Preventative immune tonic: 1 tablespoon/ day for adults and 1 teaspoon for kids, diluted in water.

Acute: 1 tablespoon every 3-4 hours for adults and 1 teaspoon for kids, diluted in water.

As food: use in marinades, salad dressings etc

Hope you love this fire cider – as you make it over the years, take note on favourite batches and flavours. After a while, you might have your own favourite recipe with particular herbs and foods you like to use each time! That’s one of my favourite parts of home herbalism, as it’s a living legacy and family health culture you can pass on for generations.

Love learning herbal medicine understanding principles, rather than just recipes? You’ll adore my Mastering Herbal Teas in 5 minutes a day course where I lift the curtain on how to craft your own tea blends for tummy troubles, anxiety and stress, sleep, vitality and more! And yes, there are a tonne of recipes too, I wouldn’t leave you hanging! Although with my simple and intuitive BASE-BUILD-EXTEND process, I know you’ll be confidently blending your own teas in no time at all! Learn more (click here)

Want a simple version of this recipe on a recipe card? Grab the DIY Immunity Kit (click here) – comes with recipe cards, herbs, bottles etc – our remedy kits are convenient, expert-backed recipes and saves you oodles of time sourcing all the bits ‘n’ bobs you need!