Recently, I’ve been checking out this TikTok hack that reused pickle brine. And I noticed that a lot of the videos were using the brand of pickles I commonly buy, the Claussen. You can find Claussen pickles in just about any grocery store, specifically found in the refrigerated isle.

The hack included a pickle jar with just the brine, the pickles had already been eaten. Afterwards, they put any veggies inside that they wanted to pickle, including but not limited to : Cucumbers, Peppers, Garlic, Onion etc.. Any veggie you have lying around.

What I did

I have a tendency to save my pickle jars, long after the pickles are gone. I use the pickle juice in my fry sauce, if I don’t drink it. So I already had everything, not to mention I usually have a cucumber salad for lunch every week, so typically I always have cucumbers as well. So at this point it was kind of like why not try it?

I cut my cucumbers in hamburger slices. Its probably my favorite way to have pickles personally, and I figured the brine would be able to penetrate the cucumbers more that way (weather or not it matters, no idea)

Everything I watched/read said that it takes a few days so I decided I would taste the pickles after two days, and if the taste wasn’t quite right, I’d let them sit longer, and taste them again, adjusting the time from there.

How it turned out

After two days I tried the fridge pickles, and they were not great. I decided to leave them in the brine for 2 more days, and I intended upon trying them again, but I went and forgot about them until 2 weeks later! That turned out to be a really good mistake to make.

I even took the pickles to work, allowing my co-workers to try it. Both who did, were surprised at how good and how easy they were to make.

Next time?

I’m definitely going to be experimenting with how long I can keep a pickle brine going, so my next batch, is already made and getting all pickled. I also plan on trying this with other veggies that I’ve been seeing people pickle, such as onions, carrots, celery, ect.

Have you tried to ever reuse pickle brine? How did it turn out?