Dry Cider substitute

Best substitute

Dry white wine

Use the same amount as the dry cider you are replacing

Best for pork chops and pork belly

Different taste

In cooking, dry cider does three things at once: it supplies acid, a faint apple perfume and a little tannic grip that keeps rich pork, ham and cream from tasting flat. Dry white wine is the best swap at 1:1, though it tastes of grape and citrus rather than orchard, so add a tablespoon of apple juice per cup to bring the apple back. A light lager swaps 1:1 and works well for pork and sausages but is bready rather than fruity. For a non-alcoholic version use 1 cup unsweetened apple juice plus 1 tablespoon cider vinegar per cup of cider, which restores the sharpness the fermentation would have provided. Be careful here: American apple cider, the cloudy unfermented juice, is not the same ingredient and used straight it will make a savoury sauce sweet.

Other dry cider substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Perry or pear cider
Close match
Use the same amount
Fermented pear juice, made the same way and used the same way.
What changes
It is slightly less acidic and more floral, so a Somerset pork and cider stew made with perry tastes gentler and a touch more perfumed.
Best for
pork and ham, mussels, sausage and onion braises, chicken
If the perry is a sweet commercial bottling, add 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar per cup to bring the acidity back up to where dry cider would have been.
3Light lager or pale ale
Different taste
Use the same amount
Beer brings the same alcohol and a comparable acidity, but the flavour is malt and bread rather than fruit.
What changes
Pork, sausages and cheese sauces take to it happily. Mussels are the one place it falls down, because the sweet shellfish liquor wants fruit alongside it and beer just tastes murky.
Best for
pork and sausages, cheese sauces and rarebit, beef and onion braises, batter
Never use a hoppy IPA. Hop bitterness concentrates aggressively as liquid reduces and a sauce that started pleasant will end up harsh. Stick to lager, pilsner or a soft pale ale.
4Unsweetened apple juice plus cider vinegar (alcohol-free)
Different taste
Use 1 cup apple juice plus 1 tablespoon cider vinegar for every 1 cup dry cider
The best non-alcoholic option, and genuinely good.
What changes
Apple juice alone is far too sweet, because in real cider the yeast has eaten most of that sugar. The vinegar puts the missing sharpness back. Expect a slightly rounder, more jammy result with none of cider's tannic dryness.
Best for
pork and ham, braised red cabbage, chicken, gammon glaze, family cooking
Use cloudy pressed apple juice if you can find it, not concentrate-based clear juice, and taste before you add the second half of the vinegar. If the sauce still reads sweet after reducing, another 2 teaspoons of vinegar will fix it.
5Chicken or vegetable stock plus cider vinegar
Different taste
Use 1 cup stock plus 2 teaspoons cider vinegar for every 1 cup dry cider
The most savoury option and the right one if the dish is already sweet from onions, carrots or apple.
What changes
You lose the fruit entirely, so the finished braise tastes like a good plain stew rather than a cider one, but nothing about it tastes wrong.
Best for
stews and casseroles, pot-roast pork, gravy, any recipe where cider is a minor liquid
Use unsalted or low-salt stock, because reducing a salted stock by half will make the sauce too salty in a way that cider never would.
6Sparkling apple cider or apple soda (non-alcoholic)
Different taste
Use 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cider vinegar for every 1 cup dry cider
Convenient and widely sold, but sweet, so treat it as apple juice with bubbles rather than as cider.
What changes
The carbonation disappears the moment it hits a hot pan and contributes nothing.
Best for
glazes, ham, quick pan sauces, braised cabbage
Check the label for added sugar. Some bottlings are sweeter than apple juice, in which case use 4 teaspoons of vinegar per cup and taste as it reduces.

What is Dry Cider?

Dry Cider is Dry cider is fermented apple juice with most of its sugar converted to alcohol, sold as hard cider in America and simply as cider in Britain and Ireland, where the sharp farmhouse style is also called scrumpy.

Cooking tips

Reduce cider before you add any cream or creme fraiche. Cider is acidic enough to split dairy, so boil it down by half first, then take the pan off the heat before the cream goes in.
If all you can buy is sweet or medium cider, add 2 to 3 teaspoons of cider vinegar per cup. Sweet cider reduced in a pan turns cloying and gives you a sauce that tastes like apple sauce with meat in it.
Very tannic farmhouse cider and scrumpy get astringent and bitter if you reduce them hard. Stop at about half volume, or cut them half and half with stock before you start.
American apple cider on the shelf next to the orange juice is unfermented juice and contains no alcohol. If a British or Irish recipe says cider, it means the alcoholic drink, and this is the single most common reason a cider recipe comes out sweet.
Never change the amount or type of acid in a canning, pickling or fermenting recipe by swapping cider for something else. Tested preserving recipes rely on a specific acidity to be safe from botulism, so follow the recipe exactly and check current guidance from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the cider out?

Not entirely, because it is usually the cooking liquid as well as a flavour. Replace it with the same volume of stock or water plus 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar and the dish will work. You will lose the apple note that ties pork and cider together, so consider adding a chopped apple to the pot in the last twenty minutes to put some of it back.

Is hard cider the same as dry cider?

Hard cider is the American term for the alcoholic drink that Britain and Ireland simply call cider. Dry describes the sugar level rather than the category, so a dry hard cider is exactly what a British recipe means. Look for a bottle labelled dry or brut, and avoid anything that says sweet, medium or flavoured.

Can I use apple cider vinegar instead of cider?

Not on its own. Vinegar is roughly five percent acetic acid and cider is nowhere near that sharp, so a cup of vinegar in place of a cup of cider will be inedible. Use vinegar only as the sharpening agent in a mostly-juice or mostly-stock mixture, at about a tablespoon per cup of liquid.

What is the best cider for cooking with pork?

A plain dry still cider, ideally a farmhouse or Normandy-style one, at around five to six percent. It has enough acidity to cut the fat and enough tannin to give the sauce structure. Skip fruit-flavoured ciders, which are almost always heavily sweetened, and skip anything advertised as a cider-based cooler.

Will the alcohol cook off if I braise in cider?

Most of it will over a long braise, but not all. If you need the dish to be completely alcohol-free, use the apple juice and cider vinegar version from the start rather than relying on cooking to remove it.

Related substitutes

More alcohol & vinegars substitutes

Dry Cider substitute

Other dry cider substitutes

2Perry or pear cider

3Light lager or pale ale

4Unsweetened apple juice plus cider vinegar (alcohol-free)

5Chicken or vegetable stock plus cider vinegar

6Sparkling apple cider or apple soda (non-alcoholic)