BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living Save That Pickle Juice!

I have never tried fruits in the pickle juice and would hesitate to do so. Also, I would not try meats.

The pickle juice might make a really good meat marinade for, say, a roast, steaks, chicken before barbecuing or roasting, but, I have not tried that.

I love B&B pickles, too. Canning a big batch was my first major culinary adventure. I was in 7th grade. Spent the night with my friend, Connie, whose dad (Pete) was the principal at school and Saturday-night-dominos buddy with my parents. He was an avid gardener, too.

One morning he woke me up before the sun came up. Just me, not Connie. Told me to meet him in the kitchen as soon as I could get dressed, that we're going to make pickles today. Huh? Did I hear that right? Am I dreaming? And why didn't Connie have to get up so early, too? Pickles??

I heard it right and had no idea what he was talking about but I just didn't have the gumption to say no or argue with the school principal (even though school was out for the summer) or such a close friend of my parents, not to mention the father of my best friend. He had me cornered.

He'd grown a huge crop of cucumbers and had onions galore. We sliced and soaked and canned and sweated for hours and hours that day. I'll never forget it. Those were the best pickles I've ever had in my life and I've loved B&B pickles ever since. Never even heard of them till that day.

I got very interested in learning more about canning when I was in culinary school and I've wanted since then to start a pickling company - Pete's Pickles - in his honor. I think he got the cooking bug started in me.

If you like spicy stuff, substitute fresh jalapeno slices for the cucumbers in a B&B recipe to make B&B jalapenos. They're awesome!!

Ooooh! I love the idea of using pickle juice for meat marinades. I've got to try that one really soon. Thanks, Phyllis!

I have six medium to large white onions. I doubt i will eat them before they go bad. I don't eat onions and neither does DH.

Can i chuck them in pickle juice to preserve for later use? Or do i just let them sit out? I don't know how long onions stay good.

Pickle 'em. If you've got room to store them till the holidays, they'll go great on a buffet menu and they'll be awesome in sandwiches. Or serve them at football tailgate parties in the meantime.

Thanks, Sandy. Do i cut them up or toss them in whole?

I'd slice them into pretty rings or quarter them the long way and keep the chunks together in wedges (does that make sense?) so I can retrieve a wedge at a time. Long strips wouldn't be bad, either. I don't think you can go wrong here.

Excellent! I will do just that and document it. thank you!

Now waiting for the emails to roll in telling me i can have free pickle juice.

maybe I should ask some restaurants?

My experience in restaurants leads me to not be excited about the idea of asking there. They're probably very busy and working in limited space with a limited number of people. When the orders come flying in, tempers flare and the going can get pretty tough. Hot under the collar reaches a whole new reality. More likely to toss things in haste as they empty a jar rather than save it, especially if they don't know you. However . . . if you have a friend who works in the kitchen, s/he might be able to collect some pickle juice for you. Look for those friends in delis and other food establishments that serve lots of sandwiches.

It's really cheap and easy to make pickle juice, though. The biggest expense is vinegar. It's a lot cheaper than the gasoline you'll use to collect ready-made pickle juices from random locations.

Some recipes call for pickling salts but I always use kosher salt, for everything. It isn't expensive since a little goes a very long way.

An added bonus? As your pickled foods ripen, so will your juice, making it even better for the second batch of pickled whatevers.

Google some pickle recipes and see what looks interesting to you. I like epicurious.com because it's the internet home of magazines like Gourmet and Bon Apettit. Except for the recipe submitted by readers, they've all been tested in professional kitchens and they usually don't fail. I like reading the reader comments, too, to see what home cooks think of the recipes and how they altered them.

That's okay - I would rather get pickle juice for free. I can walk to everything in town, so no gas will be used. I can't buy food until i have foodstamps.

But using vinegar is good advice in any case, for people that have some extra around!

I think i will wait until someone from craigslist tells me i can have their jars.

I just posted a photo of the beginning of my new potato mound - i just made this right now, in between postings!
potato mound from tires