Pickle Juice Is A Worthy Hot Sauce Alternative - Here's Why

You've just pulled out the last pickle from the jar in your fridge, and while you may be inclined to dump the leftover liquid down the sink, don't. Just don't. As it turns out, pickle brine is as gastronomically useful as the pickles floating in it — maybe even more so. A small amount of pickle brine not only makes soups tastier and gives pasta salad a flavor boost, but this versatile liquid can also act as a stand-in for hot sauce.

Obviously, pickle juice isn't going to bring the heat like a vinegar-based hot sauce, but there are enough similarities between the two to swap out brine for hot sauce when you want the acidity, but not the overwhelming heat. The most obvious similarity between pickle juice and hot sauce is the vinegar that can be found in both. Vinegar is famous for its ability to balance out richness in foods. Plus, it can turn up the volume of the flavors already present in a dish.

Besides vinegar, both pickle juice and hot sauce contain a good bit of salt, which enhances umami in dishes. Beyond this, your typical dill pickle brine contains a number of spices that have a bit of heat — mustard seeds, black peppercorns, garlic, and allspice — but obviously nothing close to the kick hot peppers bring. If you're wary of hot sauce, yet still want an even zestier alternative to dill pickle brine, the liquid from bread and butter pickles may be the way to go.

These pickles (and brine) tend to use a different set of spices than dill pickles, including ginger, turmeric, clove, and sometimes red pepper flakes, which would bring even more heat to your dishes than dill pickle brine, but still less than hot sauce. But be forewarned that bread and butter pickle brine contains sugar, which could affect the flavor of what you're adding it to, so either use it sparingly or adjust your recipe accordingly.

If you like a couple of dashes of hot sauce on your scrambled eggs, try a splash of dill pickle brine instead. From Mexican food to potato salad to popcorn, pickle juice can replace hot sauce to amp of the flavor without leaving you feeling like you just ate fire It also works in sauces and dips. If you're making cocktail sauce, you could forgo both the lemon juice and the hot sauce and use pickle brine instead. It'll still be as tangy, just less fiery.

Pickle brine also works as a hot sauce replacement in bloody marys. If you've got that one friend who just doesn't do spicy, but doesn't want to miss out when the gang comes over for brunch, this is for them. A splash or two brightens the cocktail. And perhaps the best part is that you can use the actual pickles as a bloody mary shot glass. Pickle juice may not always be able to replace hot sauce in your dishes, but it's a worthy alternative in nearly every instance.