Persephone’s fire cider

Above: Big jar of red fire cider infusing with veggies, herbs, and fruits.

Fire cider is a home preparation for stimulating immune medicine that is pungent, sweet, heating and spicy. The name and original formula is widely available across the western world and credited to herbalist Rosemary Gladstar. This preparation has older cousins across the world from Caribbean pique to West African maghani made with wine. Like tinctures and infused vinegars, fire cider is a concentrated extract of medicinal plant properties that is shelf stable.

At its core, fire cider is an oxymel - a blend of honey and vinegar that in itself is beautifully soothing and healing for the gut, heart, and airways. Added to this base are spicy and heating foods like garlic, onion, horseradish, ginger, and hot peppers; and herbs for antimicrobial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory support; creating a mixture that moves digestion and circulation.

I started making fire cider for my nesting partner Persephone, and made this recipe to align with my tastes too. It's comes out a gorgeous blood red that feels antioxidant just to look at, and like all fire ciders, is well suited for the fall and winter seasons.

My first “fire cider” came in the form of sawsawan (dipping sauce) made from coconut or cane vinegar infused with chilis, garlic, ginger, fermented soy, and sometimes sugar. Filipinx cooks excel at combining flavors, and my gut has always known the romance of sweet and salty, sour and spicy, pungent and bitter. As a kid I didn’t always appreciate the spectrum of tastes and smells (definitely had a period of only wanting to eat tomato with alamang and white rice yum, and co-wrote a whole book revisiting food memories like waking up to the smell of fried fish), but over the years I’ve come to crave it.

For folks sensitive to strong flavors, honey and citrus in a fire cider blend can smooth and harmonize the pungency and spice that don’t often make it into a conventional western diet.

Depending on the size of your produce this will fill a quart jar or larger.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup horseradish root, grated

• 1/2 cup ginger root, grated

• 1/4 cup fresh turmeric root, grated, or 1 heaping Tbsp powder

• 1/4 cup muddled pomegranate gems, or splash of juice

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 medium head of garlic, chopped

• 1-2 hot peppers of choice, chopped

• 1 blood orange, chopped

• 2 sprigs rosemary, fresh or dry

• 2 bay leaves

• Small handful of dried hibiscus/roselle calyces

• Local honey

• Raw apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Fill a big jar with chopped veggies, fruits, and herbs, and top with raw vinegar and honey. Cover with a plastic lid or line a metal lid with parchment paper. Shake regularly for 4-6 weeks (though I’ve dipped in as soon as 2 weeks 😋), adding more vinegar or honey to cover the solids as needed, then strain and compost or reuse the scraps. The remaining liquid is fire cider, a digestive stimulating drink to keep you warm through the spring.

For folks who didn’t grow up with strong flavors, honey and citrus in a fire cider blend can smooth and harmonize the pungency and spice that don’t often make it into a conventional western diet. Fire cider can be sipped (or dipped) as is, added to sparkling water for a refreshing mocktail, or diluted in juice, you tell me!

Image above: Bottled fire cider with a pomegranate label