Uses for Pickle Brine, Part II

As American bartenders have grown increasingly inventive in recent years, some have taken inspiration from the pickle jar on the bar. The dirty martini—a martini with a bit of olive brine added—has long been a bartending favorite. But now, all over the United States, bars are serving new drinks with names like pickleback, dirty pickle, picklet, and pickletini.

Joe and Bob McClure, who learned to make pickles from their Michigan grandparents and now produce them commercially in Detroit, claim that the pickleback originated in Brooklyn, New York, in 2006, when the two brothers were storing early batches of their pickles in the cellar of a gritty bar called the Bushwick Country Club. The story goes that one of the bartenders drank some pickle brine just after downing a shot of whiskey, and he liked the combination. So he tried it on customers, and they liked it, too. Soon the pickleback spread to other Brooklyn bars.

In the spring of 2010, the world of cocktail journalism was abuzz with news of the pickleback. One bartender, T. J. Lynch, told a reporter that he usually offered a chaser of house-made pickle brine whenever anyone ordered Jameson Irish whiskey.  Not every customer was grateful; “It’s fun to watch them suffer if they don’t like it,” Lynch said. He’d been serving so many picklebacks, he told another reporter, that he’d had to start giving away the pickles.

What’s the attraction of a pickle-brine chaser for whiskey? Blogger Jake Jamieson was initially disgusted at the thought, but he later found a pickleback to be “pretty excellent” with the brine of Claussen half-sours. Pickle juice “does a remarkably smooth job of cutting the fire off straight Jameson,” wrote Justin Rocket Silverman. Toby Cecchini, after following a shot of Old Crow bourbon with a shot of brine from a jar of McClure’s dills, wrote that the taste was “shockingly good”; the brine left “a snappy, savory tang that curled about the last remnants of the smoky bourbon.” Lance Mayhew, a Portland bartender, liked the “rich, umami flavor” pickle juice left on his palate after a shot of Jameson’s but warned that a pickleback with any other whiskey was “disastrous” (Lance drank his picklebacks along with light lager beer). In the Washington Post, finally, Jason Wilson concluded that that“brine and whiskey made one of those mysteriously wonderful combinations, and it doesn’t hurt that pickle juice is second to none in preventing dehydration.” If nothing else, then, drinking pickle brine along with hard liquor helps to prevent a hangover.

Since all that excited press in 2010, picklebacks and pickle-juice cocktails have become ordinary barroom drinks. David Buchanan, who suggested the topic of this post, says they are particularly popular in casinos.

Fermented Brine in Bar Drinks?

Apparently, the pickle juice in a pickleback is normally vinegar-based. Considering the growing popularity of fermented vegetables, I wondered if some bartenders had begun using the cloudy brines naturally soured by lactic-acid-producing bacteria. In fact, by 2010 Erica Christ of the Black Forest Inn, in Minneapolis, was making krautinis, using sauerkraut brine combined with mild frozen gin and kümmel, a sweet liqueur flavored with caraway, cumin, and fennel. I’d have a hard time getting kümmel if I wanted to duplicate this weird concoction, which I don’t. I’m more interested in fermented cucumber brine. How does it taste in picklebacks and cocktails? Are any bartenders using it?

A search of the Web didn’t turn up any examples, so I decided to experiment at home. Because I’ve drunk cocktails about three times in my life, I needed a more qualified taster. I sent my husband to the liquor store for gin, vermouth, and vodka. Then I poured him a spoonful of fermented cucumber brine, and he had himself a—

Dirty Pickle Martini

3 ounces (6 tablespons) gin
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) dry vermouth
1 teaspoon chilled brine from fermented cucumber pickles

Combine the gin, vermouth, and pickle brine in a cocktail glass, and stir. Garnish with a small cucumber pickle.

That was delightful, Robert said. With his help I next devised a—

Bloody Mary Mixer with Fermented Pickle Brine
Makes 8 servings

For this recipe, you want tomato purée that’s just slightly thicker than it usually comes from fresh tomatoes. The unreduced purée of meaty tomatoes, such as Romas, would be perfect. If your purée is thinner and separated, you might pour off the clear liquid and use just the thicker stuff that remains. Commercially canned tomato “juice” (unreduced purée) would serve well enough, too.

1 quart unreduced but moderately thick tomato purée
¾ cup brine from fermented cucumbers
2 tablespoons brine from fermented hot peppers, or substitute hot pepper sauce such as Tabasco
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons finely grated horseradish
1 teaspoon celery seeds

In a jar or pitcher, stir together the tomato purée, cucumber brine, hot pepper brine (or hot pepper sauce), Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper. Tie the horseradish and celery seeds in a spice bag or scrap of cheesecloth, and immerse it in the mixture. Cover the container, and refrigerate it for one to two days.

When you’re ready to serve the drinks, squeeze and remove the spice bag, and stir the mixer. Fill each highball glass halfway with ice. Add 2 ounces (1/4 cup) of vodka and 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of Bloody Mary mixer to each glass. Stir, garnish with a long pickle spear, and serve.

I would have liked this drink well enough, I think, without the vodka. Robert had to empty my glass after finishing his own.

Now the question is this: Does the probiotic bacteria in the pickle brine survive the poisonous alcohol long enough to do your tummy any good? Only Robert’s intestinal flora know for sure.

 

12 thoughts on “Uses for Pickle Brine, Part II”

  1. pickle juice in cocktails and as a chaser for whiskey is all the rage in brooklyn! you can’t go anywhere without running into a pickle martini these days…and so delicious 🙂

  2. Sounds delicious! My kids and I drink these apple cider vinegar, honey and water concoctions when we need to rehydrate, so I can see pickle brine being a great hangover remedy as well as mixer. Do you think that the Bloody Mary mixer could be canned in a boiling water bath? Thanks for sharing these great recipes and ideas!

    1. Sure, you could can the Bloody Mary mixer, using the USDA guidelines for tomato juice (i.e., unreduced purée): 35 minutes for pints or 40 minutes for quarts in a boiling water bath (at elevations to 1,000 feet), or 10 to 20 minutes in a pressure canner, depending on PSI and elevation.

  3. Hi Linda

    My wife Donna and I have a pretty good use for leftover pickle brine.
    It is hard to just dump that precious liquid down the drain along with all the spices. So when we found ourselves with a quart or so of leftover brine and a Pork tenderloin on hand I trimmed the silver skin off the pork and put both brine and pork in a zip lock bag for a couple of hours to marinate. I does not take much time for the pork to take on a nice “pickly” flavor. If left longer than a few hours it will become tough. Remove the pork from the liquid and pat dry. This is best cooked over hardwood charcoal but is tastey cooked on the gas grill or seared in a black pan then finished in the oven as well. For a quick condiment serve with your favorite honey mustard dipping sauce or the Chili Sauce from Thailand “Mae Ploy” . Whip up a “pickle juice” Dirty martini while grilling and Yum Yum, eat em up!

    Chef Charles Dewtell

      1. Thanks Linda!

        We, my wife Donna and I , really enjoy your “Joy of Pickling” book. It has been part of our culinary library for years. Having a passion for gardening and food your recipes provide creative inspiration sprinkled with fun food facts which I find interesting. Thank you for your fine work.
        I just reread your section on Sauerkraut and I am going to make a batch, a big batch. I got a case which is a bushel and 3/4. I am thinking Christmas presents and eating kraut in various ways this winter.
        Quick question.
        If I use kosher salt in place of pickling salt can I run it through the food processor until it breaks down and becomes finer? If using volume measuring. The thought occurred to me because the same technique was used for sugar in baking when super fine sugar is called for. Also, I do have a digital scale what is the weight of a 1/4 C of pickling salt? I can weigh the kosher salt.

        Chef Charles Dewtell

        1. Charles, there’s a little table on page 39 that can help you. A quarter-cup of fine salt weighs 2.34 ounces. In the third edition of the book, which I’m working on now, I want to give weights as well as volumes for the larger quantities of salt. Thank you for your kind words!

          1. Your Welcome and Thank You.

            Our Joy volume is a soft cover from 1998. Chris Kimball, another hero of mine wrote your foreward in my addition.
            I mentioned to my wife that I am blogging with the author of Joy and she asked me if I mentioned that we have attempted most every recipe in the book. I replied no, but I will. She has a list of the favorite recipes in the front with the page number.
            Our pickle production has blossomed over the years. Four varieties of pickling cukes from Johnnys Seed.
            Roughly 200 feet of plantings of both trailing and vining varieties. She has developed her own recipe for a refrigerator spear & whole and a freezer sweet chip.
            this result is from your Joy and her trial and error and coming up with her own personal thing. I want to say that I am very proud of her accomplishments and the passion and pride she has for her pickles.
            So much so that her email address is dillwithit8@gmail.com
            Thanks for listening and I will let you know how my kraut turns out.
            Hey, It ain’t rocket science!

            C

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