Give your immune system a boost during cold and flu season with this simple, homemade fire cider recipe.

What is Fire Cider?

If you’ve never heard of fire cider, it is basically just a combination of the strongest, most pungent, immune-boosting ingredients, which are left to ferment in a jar of vinegar for a while.…Sounds delicious, right?

The result is a potent, acidic, eye-watering, and, in my opinion, quite disgusting concoction that certainly lives up to its name.

While fire cider is not for the faint of heart, it can certainly offer health benefits to those brave enough to take its fiery punch!

What is Fire Cider Used For?

Fire cider is used to give your gut health and immune system a boost – it provides the antioxidants and nutrients your body requires to stay healthy and ward of disease.

Fire cider is quite concentrated so just a small amount every so often is all you need – it really is used as a medicine.

Most people take it as a shot when they feel a sickness coming on, or throughout cold and flu season as a preventative measure, or even as a sinus-reliever during allergy season.

If you like the taste though, you can also use it as a salad dressing, marinade, add it to your tea, juice, soup, etc.

With that, let’s get right into how to make fire cider!

Fire Cider Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 lemon
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 cup horseradish root
• 1/2 cup ginger root
• 1/2 cup turmeric root
• 2 jalapeno peppers (optional)
• 1 stick cinnamon
• honey (to taste, for sweetening) (optional, but recommended – helps it not taste so bad)
• oregano, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, cayenne pepper, rosehips, orange (all optional)

Note: these amounts and ingredients are just a general guide. Feel free to add more or less of any ingredient, add extra ingredients, or leave ingredients out. Fire cider is super forgiving – there are no rules here 🙂

Directions

1. Chop up all your ingredients as roughly or finely as you’d like. You can even grate the roots if you want. The smaller the pieces, the greater the surface area for fermentation.
2. Add all ingredients (except the honey) to a large glass jar, and top the jar up with apple cider vinegar until everything is covered. Cover jar with a lid (note: if using a metal lid, make sure it’s not in contact with the vinegar).
3. Let sit at room temperature for a couple weeks to ferment. Typically, about 4 weeks. The longer the fermentation, the stronger the tonic.
4. When ready, strain the cider through a fine mesh.
5. Add honey to taste. Use as needed.

Additional notes: No need to refrigerate fire cider (although you can if you want to, after the fermentation period is over). Since it is fermented, it lasts very well and shouldn’t go bad for a long time.

Why it Works

The ingredients, along with the fermentation process, are what make fire cider so dang good for you, especially when you’re sick.

Here are just a few of the benefits offered by these ingredients:

• Apple cider vinegar contains probiotics which are important for keeping your gut microbiome and immune system healthy. The fermentation process helps grow these healthy bacteria.
• Lemons (and oranges) are a great source of vitamins and minerals. Most notably, vitamin C – a super important antioxidant for the immune system.
• Garlic, onion, turmeric, horseradish, ginger, lemon, and honey all have powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties to help fight off infections.
• Spicy ingredients like garlic, onion, horseradish, and ginger are all great for clearing sinuses.

Give this fire cider recipe a try and let me know how it goes in the comments below!

Fire Cider Tonic

Powerful natural tonic packed with immune-supporting ingredients.

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Ingredients

• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 lemon
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 cup horseradish root
• 1/2 cup ginger root
• 1/2 cup turmeric root
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2 jalapeno peppers (optional)
• honey (to taste, for sweetening)
• oregano, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, cayenne pepper, rosehips, orange (all optional)

Instructions

1. Chop up all your ingredients as roughly or finely as you’d like. You can even grate the roots if you want. The smaller the pieces, the greater the surface area for fermentation.
2. Add all ingredients (except the honey) to a large glass jar, and top the jar up with apple cider vinegar until everything is covered. Cover jar with a lid (note: if using a metal lid, make sure it’s not in contact with the vinegar).
3. Let sit at room temperature for a couple weeks to ferment. Typically, about 4 weeks. The longer the fermentation, the stronger the tonic.
4. When ready, strain the cider through a fine mesh.
5. Add honey to taste. Use tonic as needed.

Notes

These amounts and ingredients are just a general guide. Feel free to add more or less of any ingredient, add extra ingredients, or leave ingredients out.