Don't Throw Away Your Pickle Juice, Cook With It Instead

I hate to admit this, but whenever I get to the end of a jar of pickles, I absentmindedly toss the juice out of habit. I know I could be cooking with it, but in my fervor to clean out the overloaded fridge, I always forget. Consider this my reminder to you, as you plow through jars of delicious, delicious, pickles: pickle juice is your kitchen friend!

If you're looking for a way to use pickle juice, The Guardian has some ideas for you. First off: You can mix it into cocktails or a shot, aka, a pickleback. The Guardian's idea of a pickleback is a 1:1 ratio of pickle juice and bourbon to create a shot. Or you can make a pickle martini with three parts vodka to one part pickle juice shaken over ice with a pickle on the side to munch on.

If the alcoholic route isn't the one you want to take with your leftover pickle juice, why not use it to brine a pork chop? There's no real recipe to worry about, either. Simply let the pork chops sit in the pickle juice for at least three hours (preferably overnight) and then cook them off in a heavy frying pan as you'd normally do.

Our colleagues at our sister site Lifehacker love using pickle juice for lots of things, like brining chicken, or adding it to sautéed vegetables, and interestingly enough, bread, for those of you who've taken on the task of pandemic bread baking. Perhaps your sourdough can be even more sour. These are plenty of reasons hang onto the juice and don't let it go to waste (making note to self right now).