In a Pickle: Creative Uses for Leftover Pickle Juice

This post was inspired by the August (2011) issue of Shape magazine (see tip # 1).

If you’re like me, you can’t throw out a jar of perfectly good and tasty pickle juice. This means there is often a forgotten about jar of pickle juice lurking somewhere in the back of the fridge. So I decided to look up ways to get creative with that leftover salty, dilly ambrosia.

Many of these ideas came from the comments found here.

1. Refrigerator pickles: (From Shape, Aug 2011, pg 229) “Once you’ve finished off that jar of kosher dills, fill it with fresh veggies. After a few days in the refrigerator, the leftover juice will pickle (and add flavour to) whatever produce you put in there—be it radishes, baby carrots, cucumbers, or peppers—and keep it crisp well into fall.” I guess you could call this Lazy-Man’s-Pickling. But remember, it’s not canned (hasn’t gone through a hot-water bath) so it has to stay refrigerated.
2. My mother’s secret ingredient: add leftover dill pickle juice to spaghetti sauce.
3. Add it to potato salad rr make pickle butter for fish.
4. Add it to the Crockpot when making roast beef.
5. Get creative and try adding a bit to salad dressings, sauces, marinades, brine, soup stock, poaching or simmering liquid.
6. Add it to cocktails.
7. Mix with cream cheese and you’ve got a great-tasting dip.
8. Check out I Love Pickles for more recipes using leftover pickle juice.
9. Use it to clean jewellery, silverware, and copper pans! 10. This is a weird one: strain the liquid and use it as a facial toner.

That should keep you busy!

Share your ideas for leftover pickle juice in the comments.