It’s hard to pass up a bread and butter pickle, which is probably why you’re no stranger to an empty pickle jar. Don’t destroy the evidence just yet though—there are myriad uses for pickle juice that will make you just as happy as the salty cukes themselves. Read on for 15 great ideas on what to do with that leftover brine.
food
15 Uses for Pickle Juice We Bet You Never Thought of Before
1. Brine Meat
Pickle juice has all the makings of a perfect brining liquid. Acidic and salty, it will tenderize and season any piece of meat it touches. Next time chicken or pork chops are on the menu, bathe those suckers in pickle juice for a few hours before you cook ‘em up and you’ll be in for a juicy, flavorful treat.
2. Pickle Vegetables
This one is kind of a no-brainer, but also easy to overlook. Pickle juice doesn’t need to be repurposed—it can simply be reused. Yep, you can use that juice to pickle whatever your heart desires. (Hint: Pickled red onions are delicious on pretty much everything.)
4. De-grime The Grill
It isn’t the first time you’ve heard us compare pickle juice to vinegar, and it won’t be the last. Much like vinegar, pickle juice has impressive cleaning power. Case in point: A scrub-down with this briny liquid will remove charred bits of food and grease from your grill in a jiffy.
5. Wash Down Whiskey
A pickleback (i.e., a shot of pickle juice as a chaser) will make the well whiskey at your local bar far more palatable, if not downright delicious. Indeed, pickle juice helps even the harshest booze go down easy—and with bourbon and rye, it’s a match made in heaven.
7. Put It In Potato Salad
Potato salad is one of several heavy, mayo-based salads that benefit tremendously from a splash of acid, aka pickle juice. (Chicken salad and macaroni salad are among the others.) A little goes a long way, so don’t overdo it—but a tablespoon or so will make your potato salad sing.
8. Clean—or Age—copper
Here’s the dill deal: When soaked in vinegar and salt, copper items come out looking sparkly and new. But if you want to age or patina your copper, you can actually leave the pickle juice on the item and let it dry to turn the copper blue-green. Find out more about how to use pickle juice on your copper items here.
9. Use It For Deviled Eggs
Pickle juice can be used to give a flavor boost to a great many things, so it should come as no surprise that if you add a little bit of it when you’re whipping yolks for deviled eggs, the end result will be divine.
10. Add It To Cocktails
You don’t have to be throwing back shots to enjoy a little pickle juice with your liquor—just empty the liquid from a pickle jar into an ice cube tray and use the frozen cubes next time you’re in the mood for a Bloody Mary, dirty martini or whiskey sour (to name a few).
Why You Should Trust Us
PureWow's editors and writers have spent more than a decade shopping online, digging through sales and putting our home goods, beauty finds, wellness picks and more through the wringer—all to help you determine which are actually worth your hard-earned cash. From our PureWow100 series (where we rank items on a 100-point scale) to our painstakingly curated lists of fashion, beauty, cooking, home and family picks, you can trust that our recommendations have been thoroughly vetted for function, aesthetics and innovation. Whether you're looking for travel-size hair dryers you can take on-the-go or women’s walking shoes that won’t hurt your feet, we’ve got you covered.