How to make Homemade Apple Scrap Vinegar
Making vinegar out of apple scraps is a great way to turn something seemingly useless into something new. I like to think it’s like giving them a second life. I do compost my apple scraps after the vinegar as well. If you don’t yet compost that’s okay you can still make the vinegar. You always need vinegar in your house anyway so how cool would it be to tell people you made it yourself?
When I have things that are going bad around my house I do everything in my power to use them up. I guess I must buy more apples than I can eat. I find the apples sitting around starting to go bad before I can eat them all. Since I am not one to enjoy a mushy apple I find a new way to eat it. It usually gets turned into my grandma’s homemade applesauce recipe. Click the link if you want to try it out it’s super simple! It’s just apples, cinnamon, and a little bit of water can’t get much easier than that.
After I peel and core my apples I have the scraps leftover. These seemingly useless food scraps can be turned into something new! Best news is it’s possibly even simpler than my grandma’s applesauce recipe.
I am all about simplicity, saving the earth, using what nature has to offer us, and DIY. So let me tell you making this scrap vinegar brings me so much joy. I hope it does the same for you. Bonus, you don’t have to go to the store to get vinegar (ever again if you don’t want to) you have everything you need right at home.
Apple scrap vinegar
1. Put all of your apple peels and cores into a mason jar.
2. Fill the jar with filtered water, enough to cover it and a TBSP of sugar. I have a reverse osmosis system in my home so I always use filtered water. Make sure it is non-chlorinated water, chlorine will mess with the fermentation process. If you only have chlorinated water to use let it sit out overnight to let the chlorine evaporate.
3. Place a little cup inside to help submerge the apples in the water. I have also skipped this step in previous apple vinegar makings and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
4. Now you wait! But while you are waiting for this to turn into vinegar you have to burp it. When the apples start to ferment they will start producing bubbles. So all you need to do is open the jar once a day to prevent it from bubbling over and making a mess or possibly exploding from the built up pressure.
5. After about a week or 2 when you stop seeing bubbles, you can stop burping. Once you no longer see bubbles it is ready to go.
6. Just strain out the apples and wala! You have homemade apple scrap vinegar. If you have a compost bin like I do then you can throw the scraps in the compost.
7. Scrap vinegar lasts over a year, but I always use mine up before then. Use it to replace white vinegar or apple cider vinegar in recipes. Or as a natural cleaning solution.
Here’s the finished product!
Homemade Apple Scrap Vinegar
Ingredients
peels and cores from 6 apples
1 TBSP of sugar
enough filtered water to cover
Instructions
Use up older apples to make homemade applesauce, apple crumble, or whatever you like.
Core & cut the skin off of apples 6 (large) apples
Put apple skins and cores into a mason jar. Fill with enough filtered water to cover and 1 TBSP of sugar.
Burp your vinegar jar daily, by opening up the jar to release some of the pressure.
Once all the bubbles are gone it is ready to be strained.
Strain out the apple scraps & wala you have your own homemade scrap vinegar!
Scrap vinegar lasts over a year but I always use mine up before then. Use it to replace white vinegar or apple cider vinegar in recipes. Or as a natural cleaning solution.
Vinegar keeps for 1 year at least. (I’m sure you will use it before that point)