Hi everyone!
Hi grude!
Ok so I’m here because I have a substance abuse problem, I uh…am addicted to sipping pickle juice out of the jar once the pickles are gone.
AUDIBLE GASPS* You sick freak get out of here!
Nah but not just any pickle juice or mixture of salt water and vinegar either, Heinz Kosher Dills or Klausen in particular.
I’ve made a few pickling brine recipes and they all…just don’t taste right at all.
You’ve watched “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T” once too often? Pickle juice, from my pickle orchards… “Be careful, Mr. Zabladowski. That’s some powerful stuff!”
But…yeah, I drink the stuff too! Also olive juice from cans of olives.
No idea at all how to use this stuff in recipes.
Me, too. Ice cold pickle juice is fantastic! As is sauerkraut brine, olive “juice”…
Yeah, I’ve got it bad, man.
There’s nothing quite so refreshing on a hot day as cold pickle juice. Olive juice is good too, but gimme dill pickle juice for preference. I also like the brine that the peppercinis are packed in.
I think it’s supposed to be fairly healthy. Or something. But yeah I keep the jars around for awhile and take a slug out of them occasionally. Definitely an acquired taste though. Not for the sweet over salty crowd. Recipes not so much.
Pickle juice is used for hydration in endurance events like marathons and century (100-mile) bike rides. The stuff has a lot of sodium and potassium which is lost in sweating. You can even buy the stuff in bottle.
http://www.goldenpicklejuice.com/
Google “pickle juice sports drink”.
I love the Dixie Bread & Butter juice. Also, the pickled beet juice is fantastic except afterward you have chick lips.
It’s also a traditional hangover remedy in certain cultures. It does seem to work–I suspect it’s because of the salt and possibly acidity. I know when I’ve had hangovers in the past, nothing seems to quite slake my thirst until I have something salty and acidic. It could be pickle juice, it could be some sort of hot & sour soup, etc.
I pickle my own onions for Gibsons each winter. The brine is tasty, though much different from dill pickles.
1 pound, pearl onions
1/2 cup, sherry vinegar or white vinegar
1/2 cup, cider vinegar
1/2 cup, water
1/2 cup, salt
1/4 cup, sugar
1/2 teaspoon, mustard seed
24 juniper berries
12 peppercorns
6 allspice berries
1 rosemary branch or
1 teaspoon, dried rosemary
1 dried chile pepper
1 cup, dry vermouth
Add all of the ingredients except the vermouth to a medium-size saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the onions to the saucepan, reduce the heat, and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the onions to cool in the liquid. Stir in the vermouth. Transfer the cooled onions and liquid to a container with a tight-fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator.
I seem to remember a shot of tequila chased by a shot of pickle juice to be quite tasty.
A friend just told me about the “Pickleback.” Whisky and pickle juice in a shot glass.
Where do you sign up? When are the meetings? I’m asking for my daughter.
When the kids were small, we’d visit my parents. My mother would send us home with a container of marinated cucumbers. By the time we drove the six or so blocks home, the kid had eaten all the cucumbers and consumed the marinade.
She can drink straight vinegar.
Send me a PM with the info.
~VOW
The other night at the rugby club christmas party I was introduced to the “Hamburger” shot. in 3 glasses, in order, a shot of tequila, a shot of bloody mary mix, and a shot of pickle juice. When finished, it did indeed taste as if I had just eaten a hamburger. Delicious.
I suppose your missing ingredient is the cucumbers. Try slicing some up and letter it all sit in the refrigerator for a week if you can wait that long.
But the disclaimer is that refrigerator pickles won’t taste the same as canned pickles.
You could go door-to-door and solicit leftover pickle jars with the brine?
Pickle juice! Yum!
Pickle juice is recyclable too. A while back I made some fake pickled carrots. When you use up the last cucumber from the jar, dump the brine into a small pot and put it on to boil. (I braced it up with a splash of white wine vinegar and a little kosher salt.) Cut enough carrot sticks to fill the jar, rinse with boiling water and pack in the jar with a couple sliced cloves of garlic. Pour the hot brine back in, and keep in the fridge.
Also a fan of a little pickle juice added into a sauce or marinade, from time to time.
But please, let’s not go getting convinced it’s in any way whatsoever, good for us. Check the label, pay attention to salt content. Daily recommended dose for sodium, for the young and perfectly healthy is about 2300 mg - a day!
If you have high blood pressure, or it runs in your family, please consider perhaps getting your fix by some method other than drinking the juice from the jar.
And if you’re mixing it with whiskey, at least refrain from scowling at those youngersters at the bar ordering vodka and Redbull, you are birds of a feather.
I’m just sayin’, healthy it ain’t, don’t kid yourself!
For me, the best part of a jar of pickles is when the pickles are gone and there’s nothing left but the juice. Down the hatch.
For those who like Bloody Marys with pickle juice, this stuff is awesome.
You can also buy jars of brine.
(available at Whole Foods)
mmm