Fire Cider Question

Fire cider is a natural home remedy for colds and flu. There are many different recipes for Fire Cider, @smithcp2002 mentioned a variation of Fire Cider in my flu thread. And I recall @Hanzo posted a recipe his wife fed him once when he was sick.

My question is: Most Fire Cider recipes call for fresh ingredients. But I was looking at list of ingredients and I have 90% of these ingredients in dried form. I have dehydrated garlic, onions. I have cayenne, turmeric, rosemary, orange and lemon peel all in my spice drawer.

Are herbs potent enough to give you the same results? If you slowly simmered the herbs in apple cider vinegar then set aside could it work as a cold and flu remedy?

 

Never heard of the Fire Cider. My grandfather gave me a cup of a Hot Toddy mixture once when I was sick as a kid. It was warm , and tasted like crap , then. He said drink it , and cover up and don't uncover no matter how much you sweat. I don't know what he put in that cup , but I started dripping in sweat . I stayed covered as long as I could . But the next day , I was good as new. Wish I would have gotten his recipe before he passed on. Amongst many other things.

 

@SB21 It probably was a version of fire cider. It seems that each family had their own version but it all seemed to taste horrible and made you sweat.

 

if you put enough sweetener in it its not too bad but i have to be really sick to drink it. I use ground tumeric and i use dried lime slices in cocktails so I dont see why dried ingredients wouldnt work as long as the drying process doesn't kill the bacteria and it can still ferment a bit.

Ingredients
1 large horseradish root scrubbed very well, about 7 inches long
1 large ginger root about 7 inches long
1 large onion root and stem end removed and peeled
1 large orange
1 lemon
16 cloves of garlic peeled
2-4 habanero peppers stems removed
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
raw apple cider vinegar
raw honey

Grate the horseradish and ginger roots. Roughly chop the onions, orange, lemon, garlic, and habanero peppers. Stuff them into a half-gallon glass jar with a tight fitting lid or divide evenly between two quart sized canning jars. Sprinkle the turmeric in on top (dividing evenly between the two jars if using quart jars). Pour the raw apple cider vinegar in over the contents, allowing it to settle in through the crevices and adding more so that the contents are submerged. Lay a piece of parchment paper over the rim of the jar, then screw the lid tightly in place. Let the mixture sit in a dark, cool place, allowing it to marry and infuse for 4 weeks, shaking once daily.
After 4 weeks, pour the contents into a muslin or cheesecloth lined colander positioned over a stable pot. Let it drain for 30 minutes, then gather the corners of the cloth, twisting and squeezing until you cannot release any more liquid. When it's fully strained, add honey to the liquid to taste and pour into a sterilized wine bottle or canning jar. Store in a cool, dark place for up to a year, shaking well before using.

 

Fire cider can definitely be made from dried ingredients. The potency may be reduced slightly if the drying was done at high temp because some of the enzymes in the herbs may be destroyed, but with gentle drying that should not be much of a problem.

They'll reconstitute in the liquid within just a few days, so a month or more is plenty of time.

Fermentation , if required, is easy just leave the container open and shoot for sourdough fire cider. Or plunk in an itsy pinch of yeast.

 

That is what I was wondering. Most store bought herbs are probably dried at high temperatures but if I dried all the ingredients myself, I could make packets of fire cider ingredients to prep.

 

@Motomom34, both fresh and dried should work. Like most things in life, how and how well they work depends.

For "witch's brew" (what my kids call it), I prefer fresh. But it is not cooked. It is shaken for 30 minutes to impart whatever needs to be imparted in the drink. And that works. It was taught to us by a teacher of Hawaiian plant medicine.

And then you have the Chinese apothecary with predominantly dried herbs and "things." Those prescriptions work too. But the general fomula is to take the prescribed packet of dried stuff and boil it. And the boiling formula is usually to boil three bowls of water down to one. Then drink it hot. And you know it will work because it tastes like crap. It really does. Not always, just 95% of the time.

The witch's brew actually tastes ok to me.

Just remember both the Chinese and Hawaiian believe food is medicine and medicine is food.

The Chinese (not all, but probably most the are involved in martial arts) believe that intent is one of the most powerful things. And the Hawaiians chant and pray over what they do, including preparing food and medicine. The intention and the prayer amounts to the same thing, at least to me.

And either fresh or dried, it is probably healthier than manufactured drugs.

 

I finally found your thread on the Witch's brew. Cold & flu tincture
Thanks for the input. I think there are a few true Asian markets in the city. I will go there and see if they some good dried herbs.

 

I use fresh ingredients as they are harvested. Cider vinegar is from the year before, horse radish is added at the spring dig, all the other stuff is added in the fall. This year I will be trying to have all the fall ingredients in a muslin bag to hang in a large crock. Yes the taste is bad, works to keep more than people away.

 

I have made Apple Cider vinegar but I did not bottle it up. What do you use to store it in? Mason jars?

 

Hard cider made in 6 gallon carboy then transferred to one gallon jugs with the mother of vinegar in them. Stored with mother in capped jug until it is needed or transferred into wine bottles for different favoring to be added.