Fire Cider!
- Ellen Hammer
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
What is fire cider? A vinegar infusion of spicy immune boosting herbs. Food as medicine. Kitchen medicine at its finest. A warming, decongesting tonic remedy. Immune support. Fire Cider gets its origins in the 1980s at an herbal school in California where, then student,world renown herbalist Rosemary Gladstar and some friends came up with the formula.There are so many variations on fire cider, and people can add or subtract ingredients to their liking. What are the basics? To my understanding, the original formula for fire cider consists of horseradish, onion, garlic, ginger, peppers, … all chopped and infused in apple cider vinegar and honey.
So what do we use the fire cider for? Take fire cider as a daily tonic or at the first tickle of a cold or flu. You can take a shot of straight fire cider, mix it into a little water, add a few splashes into a mug of hot water, or you can cook with it. It works well in a meat marinade or in a salad dressing.
How do I use it? A small shot glass serves as a daily tonic. If you’re feeling a bug coming on, take a teaspoonful several times throughout the day.
Medicinal properties of some of the traditional ingredients -
Horseradish: spicy and pungent. A strong decongestant and very antimicrobial.
Onion: helps break up lung congestion, calm a cough.
Garlic: . Broad spectrum antibacterial and antimicrobial. Garlic is antimicrobial, promotes digestion, may lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Helps fight respiratory infections.
Ginger: a warming circulatory stimulant. Promotes blood flow and is a diaphoretic (promotes sweating) which can help break a fever. Useful remedy for sore throats, breathing troubles, arthritis, inflammation. Also helps expel mucus and can ease coughs and deep seated respiratory congestion. A remarkable digestive remedy, helpful for nausea and gas, and indicated for stomach flus needing circulatory stimulation.
Jalapeno peppers: peppers are stimulating and promote circulation which mobilizes blood throughout your system (think about how you sweat after eating hot peppers).
Apple cider vinegar: helps the body balance blood sugar, antimicrobial, remedy for heartburn, leg cramps, sore throat, fungal infections
Honey: soothing for inflamed tissues, balances the fiery and acidic nature of the fire cider.
Variations on the Fire Cider theme are endless and as diverse as the people who make it. The feel I get for the variations is that adding different ingredients into Fire Cider is a way to preserve the abundance of the fall harvest. Have a lot of elderberries? Add them in. Too many black currants? No problem, they’ll go great in your fire cider. Want to have a Fire Cider that also features your fall dug nutritive roots? Go for it (add dandelion, burdock, yellow dock etc). One herbalist I read about likes to add late nasturtium flowers to her fire cider. I once added hawthorn fruit and tulsi basil and it was delicious.
Suggestions for variations -
Basil - Italian or Tulsi
Hawthorn berries
Citrus, sliced: lemon, grapefruit, orange, mandarin
Turmeric
Nettle leaf
Peppercorns
Cinnamon
Elderberry, dried
Hibiscus
Cayenne pepper
Fresh herbs: rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme
Echinacea root
Edible flowers
Medicinal and nutritive roots: dandelion, burdock, yellow dock
Various recipes:
The original…
Rosemary Gladstar’s Fire Cider
Recipe makes about a gallon
Raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, enough to top off jar
½ cup grated fresh horseradish
½ cup onion, chopped
¼ cup garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons powdered turmeric
A pinch or two, to taste of dried cayenne pepper, can also use fresh
Raw honey, to taste, up to 1 cup
Place the herbs in a half-gallon mason jar and add enough vinegar to cover them by 3 to 4 in. Seal the jar with a tight-fitting lid. Place the jar in a warm spot and let sit for 3 to 4 weeks. Shake the jar every day to help the maceration process.
After 3 to 4 weeks, strain out the herbs, reserving the liquid. Warm the honey (so that it will mix in well) and add it to the vinegar, to taste. “To taste” means that your FIre Cider should be hot, spicy and sweet.
Bottle, label and enjoy! Your Fire Cider will keep for several months unrefrigerated if stored in a cool pantry. It’s better to store in the refrigerator if you have room.
Wild Rose College Fire Cider
2 sprigs rosemary, 4 sprigs thyme, ½ cup onion, ½ cup horseradish, 8 cloves garlic chopped, 2 cups apple cider vinegar, ½ lemon, ½ cup fresh turmeric, ½ grapefruit or orange, ½ cup ginger, ½ to 1 cup honey, 1 sliced jalapeno, 1 Tbsp peppercorns, 1 whole cinnamon sticks.
Fire Cider from Immune and Respiratory Herbs resource
Try a tablespoon 3-6 times a day to boost your immune defenses or when you’re feeling cold or flu. If you use dried herbs you will only need about half the amount. You can get creative with ingredients. Herbalist Nakia Demiero at Northwest Indian Treatment Center adds whole sliced lemon, mandarin and dried elderberries to her mix, and patients and staff go through several gallons per year.
1 onion, chopped
3-6 large cloves of garlic, finely cut
1 cup chopped aromatic herbs: rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme
½ cup ginger, finely cut
¼ cup horseradish, finely cut
½ cup honey
About 3 cups apple cider vinegar
Optional: elderberry, cayenne pepper, turmeric, sliced lemon, sprigs of evergreen tree tips
Chop all fresh ingredients
Place herbs in a quart glass jar
Heat apple cider vinegar and honey in a pan so they are warm but not boiling
Pour apple cider vinegar in the jar until all the ingredients are fully covered
Cover with plastic lid or place a piece of wax paper under a metal lid and close
Store in a dark, cool place for about 2 weeks. Shake the jar daily.
Strain and press the solids from the vinegar, then pour vinegar into a clean jar. Be sure to squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can.
Store in a cool place or in the refrigerator
Resources
Information compiled by Ellen Hammer
Good Green Earth, 2025
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