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In the Kitchen – Fire Cider

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Ever since receiving a bottle of fire cider from a local farm as a gift, I have wanted to try making my own. We have made a lot of fermented foods, including hot sauces, kimchi, and fruit scrap vinegar using mason jars, but didnt have a vessel large enough to make fire cider until recently when we bought a large glass fermentation crock with a water seal (ours is 1.2 gallons).

If you havent tried it, fire cider can be made a lot a different ways, but normally has a mix of apple cider vinegar, ginger, onions, garlic, horseradish, hot peppers, herbs, and spices. The fiery taste definitely lives up to the name, and the elixir is known to support the immune system, help with digestion, reduce inflammation, and has a lot of other healthy benefits.

Growing our own ginger

I recently started growing my own ginger. This first batch of ginger was frozen before going into our first batch of fire cider. A year later I decided to try again and added on growing turmeric to my second try with ginger (post on growing our own ginger and turmeric is here).

Layla harvesting ginger and turmeric. Roots are snipped off into a wheelbarrow full of greenery. White stones, wooden raised beds, and green lawn in background.
Close up on hands holding ginger plant with stalks and leaves, washing dirt off of roots. Grey gravel in background.
Close up on hands holding ginger plant with stalks and leaves, snipping off roots into a wheelbarrow full of greenery. White stones and deck stairs in background.
Close up on hands holding ginger plant with stalks and leaves. White stones, wooden raised beds, whisky barrels, and metal planter on edge of stone driveway in background.

Prep and water seal

Most of the time needed to make fire cider is in the fermentation, that takes place over weeks. The fastest part is the preparation and chopping of the vegetables. For my fire cider I chopped:

  • Onions
  • Hot peppers
  • Herbs
  • Garlic
  • Ginger

After the vegetables were chopped, I packed them loosely into the fermentation crock and then filled with apple cider vinegar. Fermentation requires an airtight seal, that will keep air out, but allow gases to escape as the fermentation occurs. The crock has a lid that fits into the saucer shaped top of the vessel. When the saucer is filled with water it forms a water seal. Since the fermentation takes several weeks I had to check in periodically to refill the water in the seal.

Glass fermentation crock with fire cider ingredients sits on a speckled granite counter top. A light wood cutting board with herbs, a knife, and spoon are in the foreground. Tiled wall and cutting boards in background.
Glass fermentation crock with fire cider ingredients and apple cider vinegar sits on a speckled granite counter top. Tiled wall and cutting boards in background.
Glass fermentation crock with fire cider ingredients and apple cider vinegar sits on a speckled granite counter top. Tiled wall and cutting boards in background.
Top down view of glass fermentation crock with fire cider ingredients and apple cider vinegar sitting on a speckled granite counter top. Light wood cutting board in foreground.

Aging & straining

After several weeks of fermenting on the counter at room temperature, it was team to strain and bottle the fire cider. After straining the fiery liquid into bottles with a swing top lid I added additional powdered spices (turmeric and ginger).

At this point the fire cider can continue to ferment in the bottle or can be refrigerated.

Glass fermentation crock with fire cider ingredients and apple cider vinegar sits on a speckled granite counter top. Tiled wall and cutting boards in background.
Close up on glass fermentation crock with fire cider ingredients and apple cider vinegar sits on a speckled granite counter top. Tiled wall and cutting boards in background.
Close up on strained fire cider liquid. Turmeric has been added to give the liquid a golden/brown color.
Glass bottles full of fire cider sit on a speckled granite counter top. Tiled wall and cutting boards in background. A small wooden cutting board, measuring spoons, and spice jars are in foreground.

Follow our culinary adventures in the kitchen with more posts from In the Kitchen

In the Kitchen – Baking Bagels at Home

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Growing up, bagels were one of my favorite comfort foods (breakfast, lunch, and occasionally dinner). This love only grew when I moved to New York City (from the Washington, DC area) to discover the wonders of a good New York bagel. Our apartment in Queens, where we lived for nearly ten years, was right around the corner from a bagel bakery that frequently had lines out the door on weekends.

Two bagels with "everything bagel" toping sit on a silpat on top of a baking tray. A stove and stainless steel pot is in background out of focus.

When we moved from NYC to the Hudson Valley our options for a good bagel went from plentiful, to nearly zero. With no good bagel shops within a reasonable drive, and store bought bagels leaving something to be desired, baking our own suddenly started looking like my best option (since driving to NYC for a bagel seemed a bit much).

Finding the right recipe

We follow a mostly Gluten Free (GF) diet in our home and baking GF breads that mimic traditional glutinous breads has taken some trial and error for me to get right. A big part of learning how to bake GF breads has been through experiments with GF cookbooks checked out from the local library and searches through online cooking blogs, before finding the right recipe.

From experimenting, I found that the key to a good bagel comes down to the baking technique of first boiling and then baking bagels (discussed below). This process should be the same for either traditional or GF bagels.

Dough is mixed in the bowel of a kitchenaid stand mixer.
Four palm sized mounds of dough sit on a silpat on top of a baking tray on a stainless steel stove top.

Secret to a crusty and chewy GF Bagel

For GF bagels and all things GF baking I love the recipes from Cannelle et Vanille and Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple by Aran Goyoaga. The general steps to bake a bagel (using your dough recipe of choice) are:

  • Mix your dough ingredients in a large bowel or stand mixer
  • Form into palm sized mounds
  • Allow dough to rise
  • Use a chopstick or something similar push a hole through the middle of the dough mounds
  • Boil bagels in water for 30 seconds on each side to form a “skin”
  • Sprinkle your favorite toppings (we used everything bagel mix)
  • Bake until golden brown
Four uncooked bagels sit on a silpat on top of a baking tray. A stove and stainless steel pot is in background out of focus.
Bagels with "everything bagel" toping sit on a silpat on top of a baking tray. Stone countertop, stone salt seller, and pair of kitchen scissors are in background.
Two bagels with "everything bagel" toping sit on a silpat on top of a baking tray. A stove and stainless steel pot is in background out of focus.
A bagel with cream cheese and "everything bagel" topping sits on a white enameled plate with blue rim. Plate sits on countertop, canisters labeled "sugar" and "GF All Purpose" in background.

See more of our favorite recipes and kitchen experiments from cooking and baking, to cocktails, food preservation, and more with more posts from In the Kitchen.

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