There are a ton of ways you can use
pickle juice, from straight up drinking (really) to more adventurous
applications. In fact, we’re not sure why it isn’t bottled and sold as
its own entity. (We sense a business venture coming on.)
1. Just re-use it! You can brine hard-boiled eggs, onions, garlic, or any other soft veggies (soft canned vegetables work well too, like canned artichokes).
2. Pickle juice is a great meat tenderizer. Use it as a marinade for pork chops or steak. This wondrous juice can also tenderize meat, and hold cleaning properties very similar to vinegar, which makes it great for cleaning grills.
3. Boiled potatoes can be a snore. Make them less boring by adding a healthy amount of pickle juice to the water–it will give those taters a vinegary zing. (We add it to our potato salads, too.)
4. If store-bought barbecue sauce doesn’t do it for you, liven it up by adding pickle juice to taste by the tablespoonful.
5. Macaroni and cheese is re-born with a dash of pickle juice. Try it in your favorite recipe, or make this Pimiento Mac and Cheese.
6. Use it in place of vinegar in gazpacho (or anything, really).
7. If your fish or veggies need a lift, drizzle a bit of the brine over them.
8. Put some pucker into your Michelada or Bloody Mary with a tablespoon of pickle juice.
9. Elevate ho-hum hummus to something more punchy with a few dashes of the stuff.
10. An easy and flavorful way to poach fish? Use pickle brine.
12. We call this “Jewish Deli Bread,” since the dough is fortified with a little bit of pickle juice.
13. Make a “pickleback,” essentially a shot of pickle brine designed to follow a shot of (usually) not-so top shelf whiskey. The flavors are surprisingly simpatico, which explains why you’ll find the pickleback offered at many hipster and non-hipster drinking establishments.
14. Don’t want to consume it? Copper pans are a you-know-what to clean, but you can make them sparkle by cleaning them with pickle juice.
15. Weeds are a bummer, so banish them from your garden by dousing them with pickle juice. All that vinegar and salt does a job on them.
16. A common side effect from a long hard work day is that infamous feeling of heart burn, and sometimes it can get really bad!
17. Instead of popping pills next time, you can naturally alleviate your body by downing a little bit of pickle juice and cleansing you esophagus.
18. As if your meatloaf recipe didn’t have enough condiments in it already, throw some pickle juice into the mix.
19. Pickle juice not only helps with heart burn and muscle burn, but sunburns as well. If you have a sunburn that really hurts, applying a small amount of pickle juice to the affected area can really help your skin repair itself and numb the soreness.
20. Aside from health benefits, pickle juice can also add some great new flavors to your salad. Most dressings are vinegar and oil based, and pickle juice is just basically flavored vinegar!
21. Due to its vinegar-like properties, pickle juice also contains acetic acid, which is great for cleaning copper cookware. The acid will break down grime and leave your pots sparkly clean.
22. The vinegar also can help fertilize certain plants. If your garden is struggling to grow, search up if your plant would benefit from some pickle juice. Some common contenders are hydrangeas, and rhododendrons.
23. Pickle juice also some very out of the ordinary uses as well, such as curing hiccups, which many people swear by as being the most effective treatment.