How to Make Fruit Scrap Vinegar with Pineapple Rinds

Learn how to make fruit scrap vinegar with pineapple rinds. You can make this easy recipe at home to create a raw vinegar with the probiotic-rich “mother.” (The mother is a colony of good bacteria, also called beneficial bacteria, which is abundant in the probiotics that enhance our gut health.)

How to Make Fruit Scrap Vinegar at Home

Have you ever opened a bottle of wine, not finished it, and put the opened bottle back into your pantry? Then, maybe a few weeks to a month later, you go to retrieve that wine and find that it tastes like vinegar. What happened?

When alcohol is exposed to air (specifically oxygen), an aerobic bacteria in the air known as acetobacter bacteria converts the wine or other alcohols, like beer, into acetic acid, which is more commonly known as vinegar.

Thus, when your wine was exposed to the air after being uncorked, the acetobacter bacteria that naturally exists in the air went to work to start the process of making vinegar.

Do You Have to Make Alcohol Before Making Vinegar?

So how does this process translate when making vinegar at home using fruit scraps? Do you have to make an anaerobic (without oxygen) alcohol fermentation first, such as to create wine or beer, before you can make vinegar?

The good news is that the answer is no; you do not need to make alcohol first. Most home cooks are not set up with all the equipment necessary to make wine and beer or other alcohols at home. So not having to make alcohol is the beauty of making homemade vinegar with fruit scraps.

Aerobic Fermentation Is All You Need for Fruit Scrap Vinegar

The simple method of making fruit scrap vinegar at home uses a shortcut. Technically, the process of making fruit scrap vinegar at home does not follow the traditional two-step process involved in making vinegar. This traditional process begins with anaerobic alcohol fermentation and ends with aerobic fermentation.

Instead, you can make both the alcohol and the vinegar in one step, which is why making homemade fruit scrap vinegar is so easy.

You just need to leave fruit scraps (or cut-up fruit) and water mixed together in a loosely covered jar for about a week until it turns into a mild alcohol. The mixture turns into alcohol because the naturally occurring yeasts in the fruit and water mixture quickly gobble up all the natural fruit sugars.

Does this sped-up process of making alcohol produce a high-quality alcohol, such as a tasty wine or beer? Probably not. But it’s all you need to kickstart the ultimate vinegar-making process.

As the mixture starts its first alcoholic ferment, it will smell very yeasty and beer-like. Next, you just need to continue to let it sit in its jar, loosely covered, for about three more weeks until the mixture transitions to its second stage of fermentation and becomes vinegar!

How to Use pH Paper to Check Your Fruit Scrap Vinegar

If you’re new to making vinegar, especially fruit scrap vinegar with pineapple rinds or strawberry tops, you’ll want to make sure you have some pH paper or strips handy. You can use these strips to test to make sure that your liquid is acidic enough to decant as vinegar or if your liquid will need more time to turn into vinegar.

Steps to Use Your pH Paper

You can check to see if your vinegar is ready to decant with the following steps:

1. Use a spoon to get some of the liquid from your vinegar container. You can keep it on the spoon or put it into a small cup. (You don’t want to put the pH paper directly into your vinegar container.)
2. Tear off a strip of the pH paper.
3. Dip the pH paper into the liquid on your spoon or small cup.
4. If the pH paper shows a reading under 4.0, your vinegar is ready to decant.
5. If the pH paper shows a reading above 4.0, you need to let your vinegar set for a while longer. Check your vinegar with the pH paper again in a few days.

In my pineapple vinegar video, I show you the process of checking my vinegar with pH paper. As you can see in the image below, my vinegar is between 3.5 and 4.0, so it’s ready to decant.

In general, when I am making raw apple cider vinegar, I like my pH to be between 3.0 and 3.5. However, when making vinegar with sweeter fruits like pineapple scraps, I find that it is difficult to reach a lower acidity level than 3.5. But as long as the pH is below 4.0, we have reached an acceptable level of acidity for homemade vinegar.

In contrast, the following image shows you a pH strip that’s been dipped into water. The pH of tap water can range from 6.5 and 8.5, but since the pH paper in this example only goes up to 5.5, the pH strip registers at the high end of the range (3.0 to 5.5), which is 5.5.

For testing vinegar, I’m only interested in pH values below 4.0. So a pH strip that shows 5.5 is definitely not vinegar!

What is Kahm Yeast?

When it comes to making fruit scrap vinegars, especially those that start with the scraps of sweet fruits, you might discover a white spider-web film forming across the top of your vinegar in the making. This white film is kahm yeast. It is not harmful, but it is persnickety! But don’t worry. Just skim it off the top, and then give your vinegar liquid a good stir.

Kahm yeast may return, but if it does, just do the same thing all over again. Skim off the kahm yeast and give everything a good stir. The kahm yeast should eventually stop forming and should no longer be a problem. And it will no longer be a problem once you strain and decant your vinegar.

• Note: Kahm yeast is not mold. Mold is usually multi-colored and fuzzy. If you encounter mold, I recommend throwing out your vinegar and starting over.

What Can You Do with Fruit Scrap Vinegar?

Once you have successfully made your pineapple fruit scrap vinegar, you can use it in the same way you would use any vinegar in your pantry, such as making:

• A tasty salad dressing
• A flavorful marinade that also works as a tenderizer for tough cuts of meat
• An addition to your bone broth ingredients to provide the acid to help draw out the collagen from the bones.

Should You Use Fruit Scrap Vinegar in Bone Broth?

I normally would not recommend using homemade vinegar to make bone broth, since you’ll lose the vinegar’s mother when the bone broth is simmering. Instead, a store-bought vinegar or alcohol would work the best, such as Red Vermouth, Port, Marsala, or Madeira.

However, if you’d rather not purchase store-bought vinegar or alcohol, your homemade fruit scrap vinegar, such as your pineapple vinegar or apple cider vinegar, would work well. You might even get a light and pleasant sweetness in your decanted bone broth when making it with fruit scrap vinegar.

Should You Use Fruit Scrap Vinegar for Cleaning?

I do not recommend using any fruit scrap vinegar for cleaning. Fruit scrap vinegars tend to lean on the sweeter side, which can make them a bit sticky. That’s the last thing you want in a homemade cleaning product!

However, in my homemade citrus vinegar video, I show you how to make a vinegar that’s perfect for cleaning. So be sure to watch that recipe video if you enjoy making homemade cleaning products.

More Homemade Vinegar Recipes

If you find that you enjoy making homemade vinegar, be sure to try making homemade raw apple cider vinegar. It’s easy to do and costs a lot less to make than what you will pay for it at the grocery store!

Not only can you make vinegar using apples or other fruit scraps, but you can also make an assorted variety of vinegars using citrus and citrus peels. I walk you through the entire process in the following video.

When it comes to making fruit scrap vinegars, strawberry fruit scrap vinegar is one of the prettiest and most flavorful. Learn how easy it is to do in the video below, and you will never want to throw out your strawberry tops again!

More Pineapple Recipes

If you love pineapple, try the following recipes:

• Pineapple Mint Shrub Mocktail – This delightful drinking vinegar makes a sweet and tangy nonalcoholic beverage.
• Superfood Smoothies – One of the recipes shows you how to make an Anti-inflammatory Pineapple Turmeric Superfood Smoothie.
• Electrolyte Drink – You can use pineapple for the juice ingredient.

Kitchen Treasures from the Garbage

In my fruit scrap vinegar video, I show you the bottles I use to decant the pineapple vinegar. I have an assorted collection that I’ve collected over the years from recycling, thrift stores, and, yes, even from the garbage.

The following videos show you the treasures I’ve found in the garbage for my kitchen and garden. You may have good luck too!

Masontops Mason Jar Fermentation Kit Discount Coupon

Although you don’t need any special equipment to start making ferments, the Masontops kit can help you simplify the process and enable you to create your ferment successfully. In my Masontops unboxing video, I show you my Masontops Complete Mason Jar Fermentation Kit and go over everything the kit includes.

• Use promo code MARYSNST for a one-time 15% off Masontops and Breadsmart products on Amazon.com. (This is not a sponsored post. Masontops provided me with a special discount code for my viewers. I like their products, and I think you will too.)

More Homemade Vinegars with Heidi

If you’d like to learn how to make more homemade vinegars, be sure to visit Heidi’s Rain Country Homestead Etsy shop and YouTube channel.

Heidi also makes beautiful aprons. Here’s one of the aprons she made for me that you may have seen me wear in some of my videos. If you love unique aprons, visit her Etsy shop to view her lovely collection of handcrafted items, including aprons, skirts, vacuum chambers, and more. She takes special orders too!

A while back, Heidi sent around a mystery box that made its way to different YouTube creators, including me. I show you what’s in the Homestead Carousel Mystery Box in the following video.

Download Your Free 36-Page Pantry List

As you continue on your journey, leaving a processed foods kitchen behind and creating a traditional foods kitchen, you will want to be sure to stock your pantry with the right foods.

For an extensive list of the traditional foods you can make and purchase to stock your pantry, be sure to download my free 36-page Traditional Foods Pantry List. This comprehensive eBook is full of links to recipe videos, helpful articles, and more!

And if you’re looking for a printed book full of my traditional foods recipes that shows you how to create a traditional foods kitchen, be sure to preorder your copy of my new book, The Modern Pioneer Cookbook.

Kitchen Academy Videos

Are you looking for more traditional foods videos? If so, I invite you to join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy. Members of this optional paid YouTube community get access to exclusive videos, live streams, and other members-only perks. Plus, your YouTube comments include a special members-only badge.

In the following members-only video series, I talk about How to Master the Art of Fermentation.

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I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!

Shop for items used in this blog post or video

Favorite Vinegar Making Supplies

• Half Gallon Canning Jars
• pH Strips
• Large Measuring Cup
• 10-Piece Glass Bowl Set
• Mesh Strainers
• Flour Sack Towels
• Storage Lids

Favorite Kitchen Supplies

• Favorite Aprons
• Spice Grinder
• Countertop Burner (On my kitchen island in many recipe videos.)
• Handheld Vacuum Sealing System
• Vacuum Lids
• Whisk
• Silica Gel Packets (Helps keep moisture from building up in your mix)
• Cast Iron Dutch Oven
• 8-Quart Slow-Cooker
• Fat Separator (Clever kitchen device to help you decant bone broth)

Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide

• Visit Mary’s Nest Amazon Shop
• Visit my Shopping Guide page
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Recommended Reading

• Mastering Fermentation: Recipes for Making and Cooking with Fermented Foods

• Fermentation for Beginners: The Step-by-Step Guide to Fermentation and Probiotic Foods

• Apple Cider Vinegar Handbook

• Homebrewed Vinegar: How to Ferment 60 Delicious Varieties, Including Carrot-Ginger, Beet, Brown Banana, Pineapple, Corncob, Honey, and Apple Cider Vinegar