How can I reuse or recycle brine?

olives-jarFinishing up our week of water themed posts, here’s a culinary question – what can I do with leftover brine?

I had some awesome olives the other day – sharp and tasty – and the leftover brine smelled herby and was a lovely purple colour – a really developed flavour. It seemed a waste to throw it away but I thought it might be a little too salty to use in other cooking.

You guys impressed me with your multiple uses for post-pickle vinegar – is there anything similar for brine?

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9 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle brine?”


  1. Bobbie says:

    I haven’t tried it but I’ll bet pickled eggs would be wonderful. Matter of fact I have some olive brine right now and am going to try it today :)

  2. calgary says:

    You can use it in drinks:
    http://www.barnonedrinks.com/drinks/by_ingredient/o/olive-brine-63.html
    And if you search olive brine – there are some recipes that use it like:
    http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1743,145173-235206,00.html

  3. CarbonWhat? says:

    Personally I just pour it down the drain.

  4. Alice says:

    As far as I know, brine is just salty water, isn’t it? So not quite so useful as vinegar.

    Could definitely use it to preserve other things though.

  5. Myrtle May says:

    Use it for some more olives?

  6. Ellen Cmar says:

    Pickle or olive juice can be used in homemade dressings, like mayonnaise and pickle juice or in making cole slaw dressing.

  7. BeetleBlack says:

    Simple — stick some vegetables in there (like cucumbers). After a couple of days, they’ll be pickled.
    Brined pickles (instead of pickles in vinegar) are actually pretty common, they’re just not sold in stores here so many people are unaware of their existence.

  8. supergeeky says:

    recipes, pickling other things



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