Turmeric Vinegar

Fresh turmeric makes a potent therapeutic vinegar. For a really smooth, delicious and efficacious product it may be good to combine fresh infused with warm infused, and with boiled water from the left over plant material of each. As follows:

Grate  half kilo of fresh turmeric into a 2 litre  Kilmer jar, cover with  1.5 litres of ACV and leave for two weeks.

Two weeks later grate a further  half a kilo into 1.5 litres of  a slow cooker or croc pot. You may want to add 200 grams of whole black pepper seeds to this mix. The alkaloid piperine in black pepper helps with the bio-availability and absorption of curcumin which is one of the anti- inflammatory components in turmeric.   Heat very gently for between 4 and 24 hours (depending on your available heat source. I tend to leave mine on the solid fuel stove as it cools overnight) . You don’t want to heat so vigorously that the vinegar evaporates.

Strain both and combine them.

Take the left over plant material, add to a pot with plenty of water, boil hard until reduced right down.  Strain and combine the resulting liquid with the vinegar mix. This is not like adding a simple decoction because a significant amount of vinegar remains in the plant materials, so the reduced liquid is a water, vinegar mix. Even though there would seem to be a high water content this combination seems to have a good shelf life.

A good ration may be:

·        1 part warm infused

·        1.5 parts cold infused

·        1 part boiled/reduced liquid.