Apple & Vinegar from Fruchtwerker. Apple vinegar with Boskoop apples from the Altes Land region – cold-steeped in vinegar for four days.
Apple & Vinegar from Fruchtwerker is an apple vinegar from Talkau in Schleswig-Holstein: 25 percent Boskoop apples from the Altes Land region and the Sachsenwald forest, cold-macerated for four days in brandy and wine vinegar, sweetened with sugar, only 3 percent acidity. No concentrate, no added flavorings, no coloring. 250 ml – a mild fruit vinegar for the kitchen, something different from cloudy apple cider vinegar for drinking.
Buying apple vinegar usually means: a bottle of cloudy fermented vinegar for potato salad or for your water in the morning. This bottle is something different. Fruchtwerker steeps Boskoop apples in vinegar instead of fermenting apple juice, and sweetens the result – the outcome is a vinegar that tastes like apple rather than fermentation. It is the all-rounder in the product range, the variety that fits into every dressing, and one of our most ordered items.
Boskoop: tart, spicy, an apple that tastes like an apple
The apple vinegar smells like freshly sliced Boskoop – tart, slightly spicy, with the scent of an orchard in autumn. On the palate, you first get the fruit, then a soft acidity, followed by the sweetness of the sugar, which rounds out the Boskoop. The old variety brings more acidity and more aroma than a supermarket apple, and both are preserved in the vinegar.
In the glass, it is golden yellow, clear, with the slightly syrupy consistency of all Fruchtwerker varieties. With 53 grams of sugar per 100 grams, it is sweet, but because of the malic acid, it feels mild rather than syrupy. The finish is short and clean – free from yeast notes, cloudiness, and fermented flavors.
If you are looking for a classic apple cider vinegar with five percent acidity for pickling or as a home remedy, this is the wrong choice. This is a culinary vinegar, sweet and mild. And for those who find the Boskoop variety too sour, they will also perceive this vinegar as being acidic – especially in comparison to the berry varieties.
Potato salad, spareribs, homemade ketchup
This vinegar is the variety used most often in everyday cooking. French potato salad with vinaigrette: two tablespoons of vinegar, one teaspoon of mustard, four tablespoons of rapeseed oil, salt, pepper, chives, poured over the still-warm potatoes. It works just as well in coleslaw, in cucumber salad with dill, or in a carrot salad with raisins.
In hot dishes, it is the go-to vinegar for marinades. Spareribs or pork neck marinated overnight in vinegar, oil, onion, and bell pepper – the acidity makes the meat tender, and the apple provides the sweetness. Add a splash at the end to sauces for roast pork or cured pork. And if you make your own ketchup, round it off with two tablespoons of this vinegar instead of spirit vinegar and sugar.
When preserving fruit – apricots, pears, plums – it completely replaces the vinegar-sugar syrup because both are already included. And as a drink: a teaspoon in a glass of mineral water, with ice in summer. Those who prefer it even milder should choose the Honey & Vinegar, and those who prefer it fruitier should choose the Plum & Vinegar from the same fruit farmer.
From experience: For pickling and marinating, this vinegar is the best variety because its aroma withstands heat and time the best. For salad, better not to add extra honey; the sweetness is sufficient.
A recipe recommended by Fruchtwerker itself: chicken strips in a tortilla crust with fried potato salad. The salad lives from the dressing made of this vinegar, mustard, oil, and broth, which is poured over the still-hot fried potatoes and absorbed. This is the type of dish this bottle is made for – down-to-earth, quick, and the vinegar is the ingredient you can taste without being able to name it.
If you are looking for a classic sour apple cider vinegar as a home remedy or for drinking in the morning, this bottle is not for you – it is too sweet and too mild, and it is a condiment rather than a fermented vinegar. As a kitchen ingredient, that is exactly what makes the difference.
Apples from the neighborhood, four days of patience
The Boskoop apples come from the Altes Land region south of the Elbe and from the Sachsenwald forest – some from a fruit farmer friend who grows them right near Talkau and has been supplying Fruchtwerker for years. It is the most regional variety in the range: the apple grows just a few kilometers from the workshop. Incidentally, the same fruit farmer also supplied the plums from which the plum vinegar was made.
The apples are crushed and steeped cold in vinegar for four days – shorter than berries, because they release their aroma faster. Matthias Hüttmann determines the duration based on experience rather than a set rule. The apple remains cold throughout the process. Other manufacturers accelerate the process with heat, which costs aroma. After pressing, the liquid is boiled down with sugar and bottled.
The fruit content is 25 percent, consistent with the rest of the range. The process comes from the raspberry recipe of the farmer Emma near Ratzeburg, which Hüttmann took over in 2008; today, Fruchtwerker produces around 300,000 bottles a year in Talkau. This vinegar is the variety with which the workshop proves that the process also works with local pome fruit.
The bottle you finish first
This vinegar is the variety that is used up the fastest because it goes with everything. For households that want a fruit vinegar as a staple, it is the right first bottle to buy – more so than raspberry, which makes a statement in a salad; apple is the one that simply always works.
As a gift, it is rather subtle, which is why it fits well into a set: with the raspberry and orange vinegars as a trio, showing the producer's range. For frequent users, it is worth ordering two at once.
An apple vinegar with Boskoop from the Altes Land region, steeped in vinegar for four days – the bottle that ends up in potato salad, marinade, and ketchup.
