How to make fruit vinegars

Mastering the art of fruit vinegars has been one of my most enjoyable delicious. experiments to date. As a life-long vinegar fan, my motto has always been: salt and vinegar, not salt and pepper. I love pepper, but it’s a spice, a flavouring. Vinegar, like salt, can be a flavour enhancer. In fact a few drops of vinegar can take a dish from good to “wow”.

Why cook with vinegar?

Dishes are made up of some or all of the five tastes: salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami, and working out how best to harmonise these flavours is the key to excellent cooking. Vinegar is essentially one of those five basic tastes: sour. Sourness balances sweetness, as in a lemon tart, caponata or sweet and sour chicken. It’s also a big friend of fat, as it cuts through the richness, like tangy gherkins in a fatty burger.

Vinegar for pickling

Vinegar’s other superpower is its preservation capabilities. Its high acidity kills/limits bacteria. And anything submerged in it won’t just be preserved – it will also take on the vinegar’s sharp, sour flavour. Adding pickles such as capers/pickled onions is another great way of sneaking a balance of sweet/sour into your dishes.

How to make vinegar

It starts with booze…
Most of the everyday vinegars have an alcoholic prefix: red wine, white wine, cider, sherry, rice wine – even malt vinegar is technically a kind of beer vinegar. That’s because to make vinegar, you need alcohol. Acetic acid bacteria – naturally present in the air and sometimes on ingredients used to make alcohol (such as fruit, wheat or barley) convert the alcohol into vinegar.

…and mother speeds things up
During the fermentation process, these bacteria often produce a slippery, jellyfish-like disc known as a ‘mother’. You can think of it a bit like a sourdough starter: adding a mother from another batch of live vinegar introduces the right bacteria more quickly than leaving them to naturally grow from the air. This helps speed up and stabilise the vinegar-making process.

Two ways to make fruit vinegars (plus a fun shortcut)

You can make vinegar from existing alcohol, or concoct a homebrew of sorts, then ferment that into vinegar. The second option may sound like a lot of effort but it’s not – and it’s way more fun.

Option 1: Making vinegar from booze

1. First select your alcohol – it must be between 5% and 10% percent for the mother to thrive and convert the alcohol into vinegar (anything higher kills off the crucial bacteria). So cider or beer is fine, but wine should be diluted 1:1 with water to get the alcohol percentage down. Sherry vinegar or balsamic vinegar require barrel-ageing, so maybe leave those to the professionals.
2. Pour the alcohol (diluted if necessary), into a sterilised jar, then add one third the amount of raw vinegar – most commonly cider vinegar, also described as any combination of organic/live/unpasteurised/unfiltered/with mother. To make 330ml vinegar you need 250ml cider or beer (or 125ml wine mixed with 125ml water), plus 80ml raw vinegar. If you can get hold of a vinegar mother or a portion of one, you can add it to 330ml cider/beer/wine and water.
3. Cover the jar with muslin, seal it around the top with an elastic band, then keep somewhere warm, out of direct sunlight. Leave to ferment for 4-6 weeks. Factors such as temperature and alcohol levels will determine the fermentation speed, so be patient and keep tasting at intervals to check the acidity. Transfer to a sterilised bottle, label and store in a cool dark place. If you think you’ve taken your vinegar too far and would prefer it a little less sour, you can dilute it a little with water, then store in the fridge or somewhere consistently cool like a basement pantry to stop it fermenting further.

Option 2: Making fruit vinegar
Leave fruit scraps (yes, this is wonderfully thrifty behaviour) in a jar with sugar and water and the magic soon happens. Check out my recipes for apple and ginger cider vinegar, and plum, blackberry and anise vinegar below to get you started.

A simple shortcut
If all this vinegar talk has you intrigued but you’re just not patient enough to go through the fermentation process, all is not lost. Infusing an existing vinegar can offer excitement and bags of flavour in a fraction of the time. Try my recipe for a fragrant mint, tarragon and  pink peppercorn infused vinegar below.

Essential vinegar-making information

• To sterilise jars and lids, wash well, rinse, then put in a low oven for 10 minutes. See our video on how to sterilise.
• After a day or two, a white film may develop on top of the liquid. It’s called kahm yeast and is perfectly safe (you sometimes get it on other fermented food such as kombucha and sauerkraut). Skim off what you can. It’ll probably grow back, but don’t worry too much as any bits that remain will get filtered out at the end.
• If you see a mould that looks more like what you might see on bread or jam – fuzzy and green, black, blue or red – the vinegar isn’t safe and must be discarded. To stop this kind of mould developing, keep an eye on your jar – any bits of fruit sticking up above the liquid could be prone to mould, so weigh them down or push them down and stir every few days so you’re not giving mould a chance to grow.
• If you taste your ferment and it’s very sour but with a suitably fruity taste, congratulations – you’ve made vinegar!
• Properly nerdy vinegar makers check their vinegar’s pH. You can pick up pH strips cheaply from a chemist or online. Dip one in your jar and see where it lands on the scale of 1-14. Anything below 7 is acidic, but to be acidic enough to kill off/limit bacteria, the vinegar must read 4 or below. If the reading is higher than 4, leave to ferment for a few more weeks. If the fermentation seems to have come to a halt, add more raw vinegar and store in a warmer place such as an airing cupboard.

Top tips for making fruit vinegars

How to speed up the process

• While the natural bacteria occurring in the fruit scraps will eventually begin to ferment, adding some vinegar mother at the start will speed things up. The mother, a slimy or cloudy wisp or disc of bacteria found in unpasteurised vinegar, is a product of the fermentation process. Once you’ve grown one mother, you can divide or transfer it to begin the process again. Most vinegar is pasteurised to kill off that live bacteria and halt the fermentation process, so be sure to buy raw vinegar, which has the mother in it (see above for the other names it goes by). Once you’ve made it, your homemade live vinegar will provide you with gut-health benefits too.
• We used Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar With The Mother, but there are plenty of good brands around these days, available from larger supermarkets or health food shops.

Use up fruit scraps
Fruit vinegars can be made with any leftover bits of fruit or vegetables – try it with strawberry tops, tomatoes, plums, berries or even carrot peel. You can collect and freeze scraps as you go, until you have enough to make a batch of vinegar.

Scale it up
Most people don’t use vinegar by the gallon – a sprinkle on chips here, a drop in a dressing there – so we created small-batch recipes that won’t be hanging around your cupboard forever. Feel free, however, to scale up as you see fit – small decorative bottles make great homemade gifts; or you could pickle fruit or veg in jars using your very own flavoured vinegars.

Four very good vinegar recipes

Apple and ginger cider vinegar
It’s easier than you think to make your own apple cider vinegar – great for everything from salad dressings to chips.

Makes 250ml
Prep time 10 min
Minimum fermentation time 5 weeks
Specialist kit 500ml sterilised jar; muslin cloth or coffee filter paper; elastic band; 250ml sterilised bottle; pH strips (optional)

• 100g apple scraps (peel, core and seeds of around 2 apples)
• 10g ginger peel
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 tsp raw vinegar (see tips, above)

1. Put all the ingredients in the jar and add warm water to cover. The skins will float on the top but keep them under water using a disc of baking paper. Cover the jar with a piece of muslin, coffee filter or kitchen paper and seal with an elastic band. Put in a cool dark place and leave to ferment for 2-3 weeks (a cupboard is a good idea, to stop it attracting fruit flies). Check on it regularly, giving the scraps a stir so they don’t grow mould. After a day or two, a white film may develop on top (see Essential information, above).
2. After 2-3 weeks (fermentation will be quicker in hot places, slower in cooler ones), strain the vinegar through a fine sieve into a jug and pour into a sterilised bottle, then seal. Leave again in a cool place to ferment further and develop a sharper taste. (If it develops bubbles, you can unseal every 2-3 days to ‘burp’ it and remove them.)
3. After 3-4 more weeks it should be ready to use. You can check by taste alone, but to ensure it’s acidic enough to kill off any harmful bacteria and stay mould-free, use a pH strip to test the acidity (see Essential information, above). Seal and store the vinegar in a cool, dark place.

Plum, blackberry and anise vinegar
This deeply fruity vinegar is made from the seasonal fruit of late summer and fragrantly spiced with star anise. It’s great sprinkled over a beetroot and goat’s cheese salad.

Makes 250ml
Prep time 10 min
Minimum fermentation time 5 weeks
Specialist kit 500ml sterilised jar; muslin cloth or coffee filter paper; elastic band; 250ml sterilised bottle; pH strips (optional)

• 2 small plums, quartered, no need to remove the stones
• 100g blackberries
• 50g demerara sugar
• 2 tbsp raw vinegar (see tips, above)
• 2 star anise

1. Put all the ingredients in the jar and add warm water to cover. The fruit will float on the top but keep it under water using a disc of baking paper. Cover the jar with a piece of muslin, coffee filter or piece of kitchen paper, sealed with an elastic band. Transfer to a cool, dark place and leave to ferment for 2-3 weeks (a cupboard is a good idea, to stop it attracting fruit flies). Check on it regularly, giving the fruit a stir so it doesn’t grow mould. After a day or two, a white film may develop on top (see Essential information, above).
2. After 2-3 weeks (fermentation will be quicker in hot places, slower in cooler ones), strain the vinegar through a fine sieve into a jug, then pour into a sterilised bottle. Leave again in a cool place to ferment further and develop a sharper taste. (If it develops bubbles, you can unseal every 2-3 days to ‘burp’ it and remove them.)
3. After 3-4 more weeks it should be ready to use. You can check by taste alone, but to ensure it’s acidic enough to kill off any harmful bacteria and stay mould-free, use a pH strip to test the acidity (see Essential information, above). Seal and store the vinegar in a cool, dark place.

Pineapple scrap vinegar
This vinegar is inspired by a Mexican fermented pineapple drink called tepache, which is made the same way but using pineapple skin, unrefined cane sugar, cinnamon and ginger. It ferments for just 3-5 days, giving it a slight tang, and it’s an excellent probiotic drink.

Makes Around 250ml
Prep time 10 min, plus at least 6 weeks fermenting
Specialist kit 500ml sterilised jar; muslin cloth or coffee filter paper; elastic band; 250ml bottle; pH strips

• 1 pineapple (organic if possible), skin only
• 50g demerara sugar
• 2 tbsp raw vinegar (see tips, above)

1. Put as much pineapple skin as will fit into your sterilised jar, then add the sugar, raw vinegar and top up with warm water. The skins may float on the top but push as many of them down below the water as you can, using a circle of baking paper. Cover the jar with a muslin cloth, coffee filter or piece of kitchen paper, sealed with an elastic band. Place in a cool dark place and leave to ferment for 2-3 weeks. A cupboard is a good idea, to prevent attracting fruit flies. Check on it regularly, giving the scraps a stir to ensure they don’t grow mould. After a day or two, a white film may develop on top – this is called kahm yeast and is perfectly safe (see Essential information, above). Skim off what you can – it may grow back, but don’t worry too much as any bits that remain will get filtered out later.
2. After 2-3 weeks (the fermentation process will be quicker in hot places, slower in cooler ones), strain the vinegar through a fine sieve into a jug and pour into a sterilised bottle. Leave again in a cool place to ferment further and develop a sharper taste. (If it develops bubbles, you can unseal every 2-3 days to ‘burp’ it and remove them.)
3. After 3-4 more weeks it should be ready to use. You can check by taste alone, but to ensure it’s acidic enough to kill off any harmful bacteria and stay mould-free, use a pH strip to test the acidity (see Essential information, above). Store in a cool, dark place.

Mint, tarragon and pink peppercorn infused vinegar
This speedy infused vinegar has a complex, slightly fruity, floral taste. Try it in dressings or as a base for hollandaise sauce.

Makes 200ml
Prep time 5 min
Cook time 1 min
Specialist kit 200ml sterilised jar

• 15g mint
• 10g tarragon
• 180ml white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
• 1 tsp pink peppercorns, crushed
• 1 tsp caster sugar (optional)

1. Put the ingredients in a small pan, bring to the boil, then take off the heat.
2. Leave to cool, then transfer to the jar and seal. Store in a cool dark place – it’s ready to use after 24 hours.

Next: take a look at our homemade dressings and sauces, including step-by-step recipes for homemade ketchup, ranch dressing, salad cream and brown sauce.