How to Make Fire Cider (and an Honest Answer on Whether It Does Anything)

Category: Immune

How to make fire cider: the traditional ingredients, the four week steep, the honey step, safe storage, and an honest answer on whether it actually works.

Traditional uses & benefits

• Nothing that has been demonstrated in a clinical trial
• This is a traditional oxymel: a pungent vinegar and honey condiment made from horseradish, garlic, ginger, onion and chilli, published as craft rather than as medicine

Ingredients

• Fresh horseradish root (60 g)
• Fresh ginger root (60 g)
• Garlic cloves (1 whole bulb, cloves peeled and crushed)
• Onion (1 medium)
• Fresh chilli (1 whole)
• Raw apple cider vinegar (750 mL, or enough to cover by 5 cm)
• Raw honey (100 mL, to taste)
• Wide mouth glass jar with a non metallic lid (1 jar (1 litre or larger))

How to prepare

1. Understand what this is before you start. Fire cider is a traditional preparation with no clinical evidence behind it. Make it because you want a strongly flavoured seasonal condiment and enjoy the craft, not because you expect it to prevent illness. 2. Grate the horseradish in a well ventilated room or outdoors. The vapour is genuinely irritating to eyes and airways. 3. Crush the garlic and let it stand for 10 minutes before it goes in the jar. 4. Layer all the solids into the clean jar: horseradish, ginger, garlic, onion and chilli. 5. Pour over raw apple cider vinegar until everything is covered by at least 5 cm. Anything left above the surface will spoil. Use ONLY vinegar. Never add isopropyl or methylated spirits or any alcohol not intended for drinking: those are toxic if swallowed and there is no version of this that uses them. 6. Seal with a plastic lid, or put greaseproof paper between the jar and a metal lid so the vinegar cannot corrode it. 7. Label the jar with the date and the contents. Store somewhere cool and dark and shake it daily, or as often as you remember. 8. Steep for 4 weeks. Check periodically that the solids are still submerged, and push them back under if they have risen. 9. Strain through muslin, squeezing the solids well. Discard the spent material. 10. Stir in raw honey to taste, starting with about 100 mL and adjusting. Bottle, label with the date, and refrigerate. 11. Take about 1 tbsp, diluted in water, or use it as a salad dressing or a marinade base, which is honestly where it is at its best. Rinse your mouth with water afterwards, since it is strongly acidic.

Why it works

The sensory effects are real: horseradish isothiocyanates irritate the nasal mucosa and produce the sinus clearing sensation, and chilli and ginger act on the same heat receptors. None of that has been shown to translate into a clinical benefit.

Time to effect

There is no evidenced clinical effect to expect over any timeframe. This is a condiment and a traditional preparation.

Not right for

Not for infants under 12 months, because of the honey. Not for anyone with reflux, gastritis or an ulcer, where the acidity will make things worse. Not for anyone with significant dental erosion. And not for anyone looking for an evidenced immune remedy, because this is not one and the library has better options.

What the evidence says

There are no clinical trials of fire cider. Honey alone has genuine Cochrane backed evidence for cough, but that evidence does not transfer to honey used as a sweetener in a vinegar preparation, and no part of this record borrows it.

Who it suits best

Best for someone who enjoys traditional herbal craft and wants a strongly flavoured seasonal condiment they made themselves, and who is comfortable that its value is culinary and cultural rather than clinical.

When to take it

both

Common mistakes

• Believing it prevents colds. There are no clinical trials of fire cider, and the individual ingredient research does not transfer to this preparation at these doses. Make it because you like it.
• Borrowing honey's evidence. Honey on its own has real Cochrane backed evidence for cough. Honey stirred into a vinegar preparation has not been tested and cannot claim it.
• Leaving solids above the vinegar line. Anything exposed will spoil and can ruin the batch. Keep everything submerged by at least 5 cm.
• Using a metal lid without a barrier. Vinegar corrodes metal and leaches it into the preparation. Use plastic, or line a metal lid with greaseproof paper.
• Giving it to a child under 12 months. It contains honey and that is an infant botulism risk.
• Taking it neat. It is strongly acidic and will erode tooth enamel. Dilute it and rinse afterwards.
• Adding honey before straining, which makes the solids impossible to press out cleanly.
• Grating horseradish in a closed kitchen, which is genuinely unpleasant and can irritate the airways, particularly with asthma.
• Ever using isopropyl alcohol or methylated spirits in a home preparation. Only edible vinegar or drinking alcohol. The others are toxic.

How we read the research

Documented herbalist tradition, created by Rosemary Gladstar at the California School of Herbal Studies in 1979 to 1980 by her own account. No clinical trials of the preparation exist, and the evidence for individual ingredients does not transfer at these doses.

Sources

• Traditional Fire Cider Recipe (Mountain Rose Herbs) (2023): Herbalist reference documenting the traditional preparation: garlic, onion, ginger, horseradish, chilli in raw apple cider vinegar, parchment under the lid, one month in a cool dark place shaken daily, strained through cheesecloth, raw honey stirred in. Credits Rosemary Gladstar. Contains no clinical evidence, because none exists for this preparation.
• Honey for acute cough in children (Cochrane CD007094, Oduwole et al.) (2018): Cochrane review of honey for acute cough in children. Cited here for an important distinction rather than as support: honey on its own has genuine evidence for cough, and that evidence does NOT transfer to honey used as a sweetener in a vinegar preparation. Included so the record does not borrow credibility it has not earned.
• Fire Cider Goes to Court: Fighting for Folk Herbalism (Rosemary Gladstar) (2019): First person origin account by the originator: 'that's how fire cider began, in the herb school kitchen of the California School of Herbal Studies somewhere between 1979 and 1980.' Cited for attribution and dating, which secondary sources routinely get wrong, often misattributing Gladstar to Mountain Rose Herbs, with which she was not associated.

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*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.