Homemade Tomato Vinegar Made With Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

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My easy tomato vinegar recipe requires only four ingredients: tomatoes, sugar, raw vinegar for a starter culture, and water. This is the perfect recipe to use up extra tomatoes in the summer. I like to use cherry tomatoes, but you can use any kind of tomato in this recipe.

How to Make Tomato Vinegar

Vinegar is made via a two-part fermentation process. First, yeasts consume sugars to produce alcohol, known as alcoholic fermentation.

Second, acetic acid bacteria consume the alcohol from step one and convert it into acetic acid. Once all the alcohol is metabolized by bacteria and converted into acetic acid, you have vinegar.

To make tomato vinegar at home, you first make something like wild tomato wine, which then turns into vinegar!

How to Make Vinegar from Cherry Tomatoes

It is so easy to make vinegar with ripe cherry tomatoes. You only need a few ingredients: fresh cherry tomatoes, sugar, raw vinegar (as a starter culture), and water.

It helps if you have some raw apple cider vinegar (or any raw vinegar) with the mother as a starter, but it is not 100% necessary. Though, I highly recommend it.

I also want to talk about tomatoes for a minute. You can use any tomatoes for this recipe, but I like heirloom, homegrown cherry tomatoes the best. I also left a few of the green tops on as a source of wild microbes. Plant green matter with folds and pores holds more microbes than the smooth skin of washed tomatoes.

If you are concerned about the green bits of tomatoes having more harmful nightshade compounds, there’s some significant research out there about microbial degradation of tomatine and other steroid glycoalkaloids during fermentation. In other words, the microbes break down the compounds that may be harmful. If you’re interested in reading more about this, visit Google Scholar and type in the search bar “steroid glycoalkaloid degradation in fermentation.”

Side note, if you really love tomatoes, listen to the song “homegrown tomatoes” while making this recipe. It’s a certified hit, lol.

What is a Vinegar Mother?

Vinegar “with the mother” is another name for raw vinegar containing all the microbes from the brewing process. So, think of the mother as microbial cultures. Vinegar mothers form cloudy floating pieces within the vinegar and a SCOBY on the surface.

A vinegar mother SCOBY looks similar to a kombucha SCOBY but is often lighter with varying textures. Vinegar mothers in homemade vinegar are always unique. No two will look the same because the wild microbes from fruit scraps will differ slightly across batches. If it’s not chalky or fuzzy, it’s probably a perfectly ordinary mother.

You can use the vinegar mother SCOBY from your first batch of vinegar to culture the next batch of vinegar.

Equipment for Tomato Vinegar Fermentation

I suggest a 32-ounce (1-quart) glass mason jar and a cloth cover with a rubber band for this recipe.

You must use a cloth lid when making vinegar because acetic acid bacteria require oxygen to convert alcohol into acetic acid. I usually make cloth lids for fermentation by cutting up old t-shirts.

Here is all the equipment you need:

• 1-quart mason jar
• a cloth lid and a rubber band
• a kitchen scale
• large spoon (for stirring daily)

What Do You Use Tomato Vinegar For?

I use my homemade tomato vinegar in any recipe where I would use store-bought apple cider vinegar. It does impart a hint of tomato where you use it, so I suggest using it with savory recipes.

Tomato vinegar may or may not be adequate for pickling and canning pickles. It depends on the sugar content of the cherry tomatoes. To make a strongly acidic vinegar, use more sugar and very ripe tomatoes. You can also add in some sulfite-free wine, tequila, or vodka in place of some of the water.

You can also test the pH with a pH strip to see if it is good for pickling/canning. Vinegar that is safe for pickling recipes should have approximately 2.4 pH (about 5% acidity).

Here are my favorite ways to use homemade vinegar:

• for homemade salad dressing
• in heirloom culturing recipes like this fermented green tomato recipe
• In braising recipes like Tomato Braised Kale and Chickpeas with Chard

Homemade Tomato Vinegar

The keys to remember when making tomato vinegar or any fruit vinegar at home:

1. Stir the vinegar once daily. Remove the cloth lid, give it a good stir, replace the lid, and repeat daily until you strain the vinegar.
2. You must use a breathable cloth lid. The microbes involved in vinegar production require oxygen to convert alcohol to acetic acid.
3. Use a clean glass container. It is best to use glass when fermenting acidic vinegar. Clean your equipment well before getting started.

What should you do with the spent tomatoes? I like to pop them in my dehydrator and turn them into tomato powder. Makes an excellent seasoning for eggs and stews.

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