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Ideas for Pickle Brine Reuse?

 
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I tend to have a quantity of pickle brine on hand at all times. I really would hate to waste it so I'm looking for all sort of alternative uses for pickle brine. I do not want to just dump it on my compost as I'm worried about the salt content accumulating over time.

What can you use pickle brine leftover from pickles for?

Thank you in advance for your ideas!
 
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My sister-in-law reused our homemade pickle brine to make fridge pickles. I'm not sure about the exact process (reheating etc.).

I just saw an online thing that said a little pickle brine was an essential ingredient in certain cocktails. Hm!
 
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I bet it would make a nice additive to a dirty martini.
 
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Pickled eggs, various pickled veggies,  pickled french fries,
 
Timothy Norton
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I'm planning on trying the brine out as an marinade for chicken soon.

I have read that it could work out well?
 
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Great addative to fried chicken. Tenderize and leave to soak in pickle juice for a couple hours - doesn't taste "pickley" at all, but helps to make it extra tender and juicy.
 
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I drink all pickle brine (pickles, salt, garlic, dill). When I eat all pickles, I just pour it to bottles and keep in the fridge. My second major use is to add it to beef broth to make pickle soup - you also add sour cream and chopped dill and black pepper.
 
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As Cristabol suggests: drink it.  Great health benefits!
 
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In marinades, in salad dressings, added to any cooked dish really.  Try adding a tablespoon or so to a soup/stew/casserole.  I generally add a touch of vinegar to most dishes (if they don't already have something acidic like tomatoes);  I use pickle brine in its place when I have some.
 
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i recently saw a recipe for a pickle brine quick bread, which sounds like the fixings for the best grilled cheese ever. And just now looking for the recipe, I found all types using brine- sourdough, rye, quick bread, artisan bread, etc. If you're into bread, have a look around!

I also reuse my brine, topping up the salt and spices when necessary. Pickled eggs are the best, but any extra cooked beets are also likely candidates.
Depending on the flavor profile, pickle brine makes an excellent "secret ingredient" in things like pizza dough, foccaccia, borscht, or really anything with a complex flavor profile. Keep in mind my pickles always have ridiculous amounts of garlic!
 
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I slice up mild onions and drop them into boiling reused brine just long enough to "wilt" the onions then pack them in a clean jar and pour the brine over them. As refrigerator pickles they make a great addition as a layer in sandwiches, as a replacement for relish in burgers, chopped up in my homemade eggy potato salad, among other uses. I too will use a bit of the brine to thin sauces and dressings.
 
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After you drink so much, and can't stand the thought of any more, pour it out near your blueberry bushes to reacidify the soil.
 
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I mix it with mayonnaise to make potato salad and coleslaw.

 
Joylynn Hardesty
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Oh yeah, I was making tuna salad samiches, when I realized I had no relish. Catastrophic! But pickle juice saved the day.
 
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If they're lacto fermented pickles, I think some US folks call them dill pickles, then the brine makes a very nice base for eastern european soups.
I made this and loved it: https://sarahsvegankitchen.com/recipes/pickle-soup/#recipe
If you're omnivore I'm sure sour cream and or some sausage would be a great addition.
 
Timothy Norton
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Reporting back, I did a four hour brine with chicken thighs and it was fantastic.

The brine I utilized was from a batch of garlic pickles and the garlic really came through. The chicken was moist and flavorful. No complaints!

I later put did some half chickens in a brine and cooked them over some chopped root vegetables.

Pickle Brine Half Chicken
 
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If you are a sourdough bread baker you may want to try using a calculated amount of pickle brine in a light rye with caraway.  How much brine to use depends on the the percentage of salt in your brine solution.  For my brined pickles I use 4% sea salt.  That equals 4g of salt for every 100g of water.  Depending on how much water or liquid and salt my particular recipe requires I can determine how much brine provides that salt and use water for the balance.  If my recipe, for example, requires 12g of salt and 400g water.  I could use 300g brine and 100g water and fulfill the 12g of salt I need and the total 400g water. That's a lot of brine use.  
 
Anne Miller
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Pickle Brine is good for a lot of things.  

Indigestion, hiccups, even leg cramps.

Pickle brine is good to add to potato salad, devil eggs, and tuna salad for sandwiches.
 
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I always keep pickle juice on hand in the summer - hot here in SC and it is a great substitute for lost electrolytes!  Have also used it as a marinade for pork chops - they were so good that it is a regular go to now instead of Italian salad dressing.  Which reminds me - love using leftover brine from my sweet/hots for salad dressing - just add some olive oil and voila!  
 
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Shake it up with oil or mayo for salad dressing, potato salad, sandwiches etc

Or fill your jar with chopped cabbage (onions and chiles optional) for a quick Kim chee-like condiment. Called curtido, this is a staple throughout Latin America. Used on tacos, as a side salad, on sandwiches, etc
 
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Timothy Norton wrote:I tend to have a quantity of pickle brine on hand at all times. I really would hate to waste it so I'm looking for all sort of alternative uses for pickle brine. I do not want to just dump it on my compost as I'm worried about the salt content accumulating over time.
What can you use pickle brine leftover from pickles for?
Thank you in advance for your ideas!



I would not hesitate to use it as a chicken tenderizer, assuming that you filter some of the impurities, like bits of pickle that may not pass through the marinade gun:
I was looking for "how do you make chicken as tender as the commercial rotisserie chicken". And guess what: they use a marinade containing vinegar and salt [and a bit of potassium sorbate too, but I'd skip that part.
Although chicken can be tough and a bit dry without it,  if you use that pickle juice as marinade, the salt will help retain the moisture, and the vinegar makes it extra tender and juicy.
This fall, before my knee replacement, I intend to butcher all the roosters from the straight run I incubated. At that time, I will make a vinegar brine and soak them or push some into the meat with a marinade gun.
The nice thing is that once you freeze the chicken, the tenderizing stops, so you won't get a chicken meat that is falling apart either. [You could actually dissolve the flesh if you left it too long in the brine!]
That's pretty much the only use I can think of for *pickle* brine.
If you make pickled beets, the extra brine can be used over hard boiled eggs and the white turns a lovely pink color. It's beautiful, sliced in a salad.
When I have too many eggs, I hard boil the older ones, shell them, and place them in a 2 qt. jar. I just pour the pickled beet juice over the eggs. YUM!
 
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Use it to store Feta or other types of brined cheese, or marinate/store your soft cheeses in it, like mozzarella. Use it for the liquid in dill bread... it's amazing!
 
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In the tropics up north Queensland a few years back you could buy peanuts boiled in brine and they were very tasty, they were kept in the fridge
 
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I like bread and butter pickles, or the golden pickles from Kate Downham’s cookbook.

I wonder if most of these ideas are for dill pickles, or fermented pickles.  

I do use sweet pickle juice for pickled eggs, in tuna salad and potato salad… but it’s probably too much sugar to drink.😀
 
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Love all these ideas. I know of one for the pickle lovers and brine drinkers- make sure you put the brine in a plastic container with room to expand and freeze it. Take it out to thaw a bit and eat it as it thaws for a delicious “pickle ice” treat. I know a kid who introduced this to us, but the plastic container is super important- he put a glass jar in the freezer and it exploded everywhere OOPS!
 
Thekla McDaniels
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It’s true I have broken a glass container or two in my freezer, but I really don’t want my food in plastic or plastic entwined in my life and habits.  I have exploded the occasional glass growler of kombucha as well by forgetting to vent the pressure every day, or more frequently in warm conditions.  To protect from flying glass shards, I put the growler in a bucket, or in the sink with a towel draped over it.  Haven’t exploded a growler in 10 years.

When putting glass containers in the freezer to freeze, I only partially fill them, and place them in the freezer positioned so the liquid can expand upward in to the air space.  If I am putting full jars of raw milk in the freezer for rapid chilling, I set a timer I carry with me.
 
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:I like bread and butter pickles, or the golden pickles from Kate Downham’s cookbook.

I wonder if most of these ideas are for dill pickles, or fermented pickles.  

I do use sweet pickle juice for pickled eggs, in tuna salad and potato salad… but it’s probably too much sugar to drink.😀



I'm a spicy bread&butter fan, myself, and use it for almost all the same things listed, so far. I didn't care for the string cheese, because it made it tough, but didn't impart much flavor. It might be better with fresh mozz. Spicy b&b is my not so secret secret ingredient in my deviled eggs, egg salad chicken salad, and a few dressings, and I use it, with an extra pepper & a couple smashed cloves of garlic added, to make a pickled veggie salad, that will actually keep for a month, in the fridge (cukes, bell peppers, red onion, sliced or baby carrots, cauliflower... whatever you like, all cut into bite-size pieces), in homemade mayo. It's a bit sticky for topical application, but diluted and iced, it's tasty to just drink for hydration - or just because.
 
Thekla McDaniels
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Yum! Carla,

I like  B&B pickles better with heat than without!

Got any recipes or proportions for salad dressings?
 
Carla Burke
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Thekla McDaniels wrote:Yum! Carla,

I like  B&B pickles better with heat than without!

Got any recipes or proportions for salad dressings?



I just sub it in for the vinegar. If the juice has gone a little flat, I might put it on the stove, add more pickling spice, maybe a little more vinegar, a little more sugar, and another pepper - whatever it feels like it's missing - and bring it to a boil, then drop it down to a simmer for 15 minutes or so. Then I'll cool it, and go ahead with whatever I was making. The mayo made with it ends up tasting kinda like the mayo-based sandwich spread my grandma used to buy.
 
Thekla McDaniels
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I’ll give it a try!
 
Timothy Norton
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This is really becoming my all purpose brine.

I marinated some pork chops for four hours in some dill pickle brine in the fridge. I ended up searing them in a hot cast iron pan for about eight minutes a side and then let them rest. They were deliciously moist and tender.

What else should I try with pickle brine?
 
Carla Burke
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I added kohlrabi to the pickled salad, with the spicy b&b pickle juice, this time - we have a new favorite!!
 
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