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How To Make Fruit Vinegar

Foraging is a fantastic activity, but it’s hard work, so you want to utilise every scrap to best effect in whichever way you can.

Once I’ve made a syrup  from the berries I’ve harvested, I’m loathed to throw them out. Some say you can put them in an ‘adult pie’ or ice cream, but that doesn’t always work – blackberries, for example, are white as snow by the time the flavour’s been sucked out of them, or there’s simply nothing left of them.  Other fruits, however, like rose hips, hawthorns and elderberries, have enough left in them to make something else out of. Like second-use tea bags, they’re not the ultimate flavour, but they may just work out okay.

balsamic vinegar

I have a bundle of 100ml jars specifically for this purpose – when I’ve made a syrup, I pop the pulp into the jar and top it with vinegar – if it doesn’t work out, I’ve lost about 50ml vinegar. If it does work out… I have a delicious new fruit vinegar to enjoy.

Some fruits – like elderberries or fresh blackberries – will pretty immediately change the colour of the vinegar, but I’d still suggest leaving it for a few days – although I have also done it about a year down the line, having forgotten about it! Others – like hawthorn – may take about a day to change the colour of the vinegar, but it’ll come.

To start, you’ll need equal parts fruit to vinegar, so lets say 600g fruit to 600ml apple cider vinegar. Now, I don’t normally set out to make vinegar, but rather use leftover bits of fruit or used pulp to make the vinegar, so you can be flexible with the amounts. I tend to use what I have, cover it with vinegar, and hope for the best!

That makes the next bit a little more tricky – or a good opportunity to practice maths and fractions!

After  at least four days of soaking in the vinegar, strain out the fruit and pour the vinegar into a pot on a medium heat.  For every 600ml liquid you need about 300g sugar – add less or more, depending on how sweet or how thick you want the vinegar. Add the sugar and stir till it is all dissolved. Leave to simmer for 15-25 minutes (adjusting depending on how much you’ve started with – the longer it boils the thicker it will be) without a lid on, which will reduce the liquid into a thick and delicious vinegar for dressings or dipping. If it’s not thick enough, simmer a little longer, but do bear in mind that as the vinegar cools, it’ll thicken too.

True balsamic improves with age. If you’re disciplined and have the space, use 3/4 of your vinegar now, but put aside a small jar of each batch in the back of the cupboard somewhere. I discovered a forgotten blackberry balsamic in the back of a cupboard when we moved house – it was about five years old, thick, sweet and incredible!

How To Make Fruit Vinegar
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
  • 600g fruit
  • 600ml white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
  • 300g sugar
Instructions
Instructions
  1. In a glass jar, add fruit and cover with vinegar. Leave for at least four days, shaking whenever you pass by it.
  2. When it’s taken on good colour, strain out the fruit and pour the vinegar into a pot on a medium heat.
  3. Add the sugar and stir till it is all dissolved.
  4. Leave to simmer for 20 – 25 minutes without a lid on, which will reduce the liquid into a thick and delicious vinegar for dressings or dipping.
Thermomix Instructions
  1. In a glass jar, add fruit and cover with vinegar. Leave for four days, shaking whenever you pass by it.
  2. After four days, strain out the fruit and pour the vinegar into the Thermomix.
  3. Add the sugar 15 mins/ Varoma/speed 1/ NO MC

 

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How To Pack Your Diet Full Of Fruit

We’re constantly being told by health professionals to make healthy choices when it comes to our diets, and although the threshold of how many portions of fruit we should eat a day changes, it’s clear that we should consume fruit as part of a healthy and balanced diet. fruit-bowl-1600035_960_720

Why fruit is beneficial

Fruits are full of fibre, vitamins and minerals all of which are essential in helping our bodies to function correctly. The way we eat fruit also impacts our overall health and well-being – sometimes it’s not just as simple as eating a piece of fruit, but the way we eat it that ensures our bodies absorb all the nourishment it can give. Whether fruit is fresh, canned or frozen it all works wonders for our health. For some, eating one portion of fruit is difficult, let alone eating five or more portions a day but it’s easier than you think to pack your diet full of fruit if you follow the tips below:

Breakfast done right

Eating fruit for breakfast or on an empty stomach is beneficial to our health as can cause the digestive system to work quickly, meaning that our stomachs can process the nutrients easier, overall benefiting our health. If you’re eating breakfast on the go, grab a slice of watermelon or pear, or perhaps add more fruit to your usual breakfast. Add cherries to your pancakes, apple and banana to your muesli or blueberries to your porridge.

Make the perfect combinations

Mixing fruits with other foods is another great way of packing your diet full of vitamins, minerals, fibre, potassium and folate. Simply finding the right combinations creates lots of opportunities to eat more tasty fruits at meal times. Try creating healthy main meals with fruit as a component, such as roast pork with apple stuffing, orange and fig salad, watermelon salsa or add tinned or frozen fruit to your stews and casseroles. It’s time to start getting creative in the kitchen and not just with main meals. Lots of desserts contain fruit or fruit can be added to pudding to make it more enjoyable. Top your ice cream with kiwi or lavish bananas in peanut butter and drizzle them with chocolate, eat them straight out the freezer, indulge in fruit kebabs, frozen fruit lollies or whip up a mouth-watering blackberry pie! Creating fruity desserts is a great way to get children involved and get them eating a fruit-filled diet.

Snack right

If you tend to eat three large meals a day, fruit is a perfect choice for those who like to snack. Taking fruit with you to the workplace or on days out makes it easier to get your extra portions. If you find munching on a piece of fruit too boring, change it up a bit! Mix strawberries into your yoghurt, add fruit to your favourite chocolate spread on toast or create a homemade fruit salad. Just a handful of dried fruit or cup of juicy grapes is enough to make up one portion.

Drink your way to 5-a-day

Juices and fruit smoothies are another way to boost your fruit intake, and you can create exciting flavours. Using 80g of two different fruits can increase your intake by up to two portions, but put a limit on how much you consume to 150ml a day, as too much sugar can affect the teeth.

Taste the rainbow with different fruit varieties, and remember, the more colourful food is; the better it is for your health. Red fruits, for instance, such as tomatoes, pink grapefruit and watermelon are full of lycopene, whereas orange coloured fruit is overflowing with beta-carotene including peaches, oranges, mangos, apricots and nectarines, all of which help reduce both the signs of ageing and the risk of future health problems.

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Stewed Fruit For Breakfast
Stewed FruitI grew up a military child, which meant we moved around a lot. Whether it was normal or due to my dad being an officer, I don’t know, but every time we moved cities we had three weeks in hotels, and I loved it. I still love hotels to this day, even if they’re down the road from my house, a break away in a hotel is a mini adventure, filled with excitement and newness of change. It’s wonderful.

One of the things I remember most in moving from Namibia to South Africa was staying in the no-longer-in-existence Drum Rock Inn, to my memory a proper bushveld hotel, complete with morning drumming to wake the guests.

In this hotel, we’d go down for breakfast, and the only thing I remember from this breakfast, and subsequent ones, is the stewed fruit that goes with yoghurt. Now, whenever I move, I crave stewed fruit! But I’ve been making it for my breakfast for a while now, and I absolutely love it.

Stewed Fruit

Just a tip, not to be indelicate, but eat a little at a time otherwise everyone will smell you coming 😉

The ingredients below are a guide. You can play around with it. If you use fresh fruit, you need less water or sugar. If you use dried fruit, as I do, you need the water to both rehydrate and stew. Play around with which fruits you like. I love the apple rings for flavour, the apricots for a bit of sourness and the prunes for sweetness. If you use sugar, you’ll have a beautifully sweet syrup to have with a thick and sour yoghurt, but if you use Rapadura you may have a little less syrup at the end.  You could use other sweeteners, but I haven’t tried to.

Stewed FruitYou don’t have to use a Thermomix to make stewed fruit. A nice sized heavy based pot on a stove will do the same job, you may just have to cook it for longer, and stir on occasion.

 

Stewed Fruit For Breakfast
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 150g fruit – 50g apple rings, 50g apricots, 50g prunes
  • 30g sugar / 20g rapadura
  • 400g water
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon and/or vanilla pod
Instructions
  1. Add all the ingredients to the Thermomix bowl.
  2. Cook Varoma/Spoon Speed/10 mins without the MC
  3. Remove the fruit and set aside
  4. Cook the remaining liquid for 5 – 7 minutes, Varoma/Speed 2 (still without the MC) to thicken the liquid into a syrup, but keep an eye on it.
  5. Pour over fruit.
  6. Serve with yoghurt, hot or cold.

Price compare your dried fruit ingredients here:

Try this recipe with fresh fruit from Riverford: