Four Thieves Vinegar + Four Thieves Vinaigrette Recipe

Written by Heidi | April 30, 2024

Back when we developed our DIY Four Thieves® Essential Oil Blend recipe for diffusing and external use, we received a lot of questions about taking the blend internally. We never recommend ingesting essential oils because they are too highly concentrated. However, the herbs that are the foundation of the not-edible essential oil blend are also a perfect foundation for a very edible (and delicious) herbal vinegar. Four Thieves vinegar is wonderful for culinary, body-care, and wellness recipes and is also an effective vinegar-based spray cleaner that just so happens to have a delightful aroma. Plus, there is something particularly satisfying about putting your personal spin on a classic formulation that has been part of the herbal lexicon for 500 years. This infused vinegar is a longtime Mountain Rose Herbs favorite!

The Story of Four Thieves

In 1825, a celebrated British physician named John Ayrton Paris published an updated edition of his Pharmacologia. In this edition, Dr. Paris wrote for the first time about thieves vinegar, which was reputed to be a prophylactic for contagions. The story of the thieves, as reported in Pharmacologia, was about four thieves who robbed the dead during the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720-21. This outbreak of bubonic plague was particularly virulent, with high death rates in Marseille and the area around the city. Despite their constant exposure to the plague victims they robbed, the four thieves never became ill. In Pharmacologia, Dr. Paris wrote, “Upon being arrested, they stated on condition of their lives being spared that the use of Aromatic Vinegar had preserved them…”

The origins of the aromatic vinegar, according to Dr. Paris, were actually older than the Plague of Marseilles. He noted that as early as 1531, the renowned English Archbishop Thomas Wolsey carried a sponge soaked in vinegar “impregnated with various spices, in order to preserve him from infection.” The herbs that Archbishop Wolsey and, later, the four thieves used have been the basis for many recipes, including the essential oil blend. But we’re particularly fond of this wonderfully edible, delicious vinegar twist on the classic remedy, though we're not claiming that it will help with a potential bubonic plague outbreak.

Recipe for Four Thieves Vinegar

Makes about 2 cups.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. dried organic sage leaf
1 tsp. dried organic lavender flowers
1 tsp. dried organic rosemary leaf
1/2 tsp. dried organic thyme leaf
1/2 tsp. organic black peppercorns
16 oz. organic raw apple cider vinegar

Directions

Place herbs and peppercorns in a pint-size jar. Set aside.
Over low heat, gently warm apple cider vinegar to about 100° to 104° F. Don’t boil!
Pour warm cider vinegar into the jar with the herbs. Fill to the top.
Wipe any liquid off the rim and top with a tight-fitting plastic lid. Alternatively, place a piece of parchment paper under a metal canning lid to keep the vinegar from touching the metal, or use parchment paper with a rubber band to hold it tightly in place.
Label and date the jar, and store it in a cool, dark place to extract for four weeks, shaking the jar every couple of days.
Strain vinegar through a fine mesh strainer, pressing down on the herbs to release as much vinegar as possible.
Pour strained vinegar into a glass storage jar or bottles. Remember to label and date!
Store in a cool, dark place until ready to use in vinaigrette, etc.

Pro Tips

Adjust the amount of herbs to suit your palate. If you want an extra kick to your vinegar, you can increase the amount of each herb to 1 tablespoon.
To use fresh herbs, chop them up in similar proportions to the recipe above (3 parts sage; 1 part lavender and rosemary; 1/2 part thyme and peppercorns), and fill the jar half full of the herbs. Then fill the rest of the jar with vinegar, infuse for a month, and strain.

Four Thieves Vinaigrette Recipe