Four Thieves Vinegar

[Clair de la Lune]

I have recently bought some "Four Thieves Vinegar" and have read some accounts on what is in it online. I am not sure what is in the one I bought specifically. I think there are only supposed to be 4 ingredients, but if you look online for recipes, you can find up to 7 or more ingredients, depending on the recipe you use. Does anyone here have a favorite recipe you would like to share, or anything you would like to add that you do with it?

Thank you,
Clair

[Godgifu]

It's one of those things that's been around long enough that the recipe has evolved over time. Kind of like the medieval versus modern Blancmange -- nowadays it's a spiced pudding dessert; in medieval times it was a chicken and rice stovetop dish.

As I understand it, the earliest recipe for Four Thieves Vinegar is just garlic in verjus. Nowadays red wine vinegar or -- more common -- apple cider vinegar is used, and sometimes a dozen or more herbs/spices of which garlic may or may not be included. I think some of the evolution came about just for olfactory reasons; garlic and verjus just doesn't smell so nice. So you can find apple cider vinegar steeped with fragrant herbs like lavender and thyme passed off now as Four Thieves.

When I make my own for magical use, I use red wine vinegar, garlic, rosemary, edible camphor, and cinnamon.

[Terra Mater]

Originally, four thieves vinegar was created as a treatment for plague. Modern witches us it mostly for protecting against disease and magical attack.

The different herbs added reflect the particular diseases and attacks the individual witches are trying to protect against.:thumbsup:

[brymble]

I always preferred the recipe in Meyer's The Herbalist.

[Kalena]

During the Great Plague, four robbers in France were convicted of going to the houses of plague victims, strangling them in their beds and then looting their dwellings. For this, they were condemned to be burned at the stake, and in order to have their sentence mitigated, they revealed their secret preservative, after which they were hanged. This is said to be the original recipe.

3 pints white wine vinegar
handful wormwood
handful meadowsweet
handful juniper berries
handful wild marjoram
handful sage
50 cloves
2 oz. elecampane root
2 oz. angelica
2 oz. rosemary
2 oz. horehound
3 g camphor

Not sure if that is an accurate account but it is the most common.

[brymble]

The version I used to make didn't have the camphor, and I think it included thyme. I used to mop my floor with it.

[omar]

Four Thieves Vinegar- Marseille, France, year? It kept the fleas off that caused the plague. Vinegar & lavender should have been enough? From The Herbalist,1918. Lavender, rosemary,wormwood,rue,sage & mint. A large hadfull of each in a gal. of cider vinegar seal & set by the fire four days. Strain add one once of pounded campher gum. Bottle & seal.

[~Belladonna~]

I use my 4 Thieves for protection. I often poor some into my bath and have a nice Magickal soak. It's awesome to ward off negativity, both physical and spiritual.
It has many other uses too ;)

I've looked it up online before and there are soooo many different recipes for it. I'm sure the original one has been lost in time, I hope not however.

[Clair de la Lune]

I have used store bought Four Thieves Vinegar these last few days while having the flu and a sinus infection, cold sores, a canker sore, and acne. Every time I ate, I was nauseated until I took about a tablespoon of the Four Thieves Vinegar. Then I had immediate relief. I had some cold sores around my mouth and within a couple days of taking the vinegar they were gone! I had the canker sore for less than a day, amazingly while taking this stuff, and usually those can drag on for a week sometimes. I had a bad sinus infection and started using a prescribed antibiotic ointment in the nose, but it usually takes at least 3 or 4 days to START working, but on the vinegar, it started relieving the infection a little the first time, and by the third day, it was quite a bit better. My acne is just about gone.

I have only been on it for about 4 days now, and had started out with a 4 oz. bottle from a local store that carries the brand Indio Products (product No. 70644). I have a little over half of it left. It cost $4.95. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is apparently dyed with some sort of blue dye that makes it look pretty, but turns my tongue blue.:smileroll

The price and the dye, and the lack of an ingredients list is why I am looking for the method of making this at home.

I have also heard it is great at banishing enemies, which is a plus, but I don't think I need to make it in bulk for that reason.:hahugh:

It would make a great cleaner with it's antibacterial and antiviral properties though.

I REALLY appreciate all the information everyone has shared. I can't thank you enough!!!:boing:

Sincerely,
Clair

[Kalena]

:smile: Please adapt the recipe I posted if you intend to use it topically or internally.

I did make it up several years ago and it did smell quite pungent :uhhuhuh:

I had fun though.

[Godgifu]

The price and the dye, and the lack of an ingredients list is why I am looking for the method of making this at home.

I wouldn't even attempt to use something from Indio for internal use. (But on the plus, it probably is just the same kind of dye used in food coloring.) Do they even add any herb flavor/extract to it? With their reputation I'd imagine colored vinegar is all that their Four Thieves consists of.