Leftover vinegar from pickles

Caterina

I buy a lot of pickled cucumbers and gherkins in L1dl as i use them in packed lunches, salads and sliced in sandwiches. Can I reuse the vinegar to make my own homemade pickles, and could anyone with a recipe please share it?

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

I don't see why you can't re-use the pickling vinegar CATTIE, I would strain out any herbs, spices, onion etc. bring it to the boil and hold it there for 5 minutes and then use it to pickle cucunbers I'd sliced/chunked salted and left for a couple of hours and then washed and drained well. I make bread and butter pickles from scratch which have cucumber slices and onion slices in and they are ready to use within a couple of weeks. Try one jar to start with, if it works and you like the resulting pickles you're on to a winner if not, it's not too much waste to feel guilty about.

Just had a read around regarding using vinegar and one site said that the acidity was reduced after one lot of veg had been through the vinegar and that boiling it would drive off some of the liquid and concentrate the acid. Another site said that you could use it once it had been boiled to make 'fridge pickles' i.e quick pickles that are kept in the fridge and not stored in a cupboard. Method is as above by salting slices of cucumber them rinsing and draining well. Put into a sterile jar and cover with vinegar and this is ready to use in 3 days. Hope that helps.

ruby_eskimo

I did always wonder about this. Usually I just chuck the leftover vinegar down the toilet to help keep it clean.

Evil_Olive

I've tried this with the leftover vinegar from jars of pickled onions, and it doesn't work as the vinegar is very watered down once it's been used for pickling once already (during the pickling process the water in the veg is gradually replaced by the acid in the vinegar, making the veg more acidic (which is what preserves them) and the vinegar less so.

Once the vinegar is less acidic/watered down in this way it's useless for pickling. The veg doesn't pickle fully and often goes mushy.
The vinegar sold especially as 'Pickling Vinegar' is actually stronger than the normal stuff because of this - although I've found ordinary malt vinegar works fine so long as it's 'new'.

With vinegar from pickled onions, I just use it on chips - delicious - or for cleaning purposes where it doesn't have to be scentless or pure like white vinegar (eg sink plughole, bath scumlines, or toilets as ruby_eskimo says)

With other veg like gherkins or jalapenos it's often not pure vinegar anyway as they are more often pickled in a blend of vinegar and salty water, and sometimes sugar.

Hope this helps X

LameWolf

ruby_eskimo wrote: »

I did always wonder about this. Usually I just chuck the leftover vinegar down the toilet to help keep it clean.

I do this, too. It helps keep the limescale down, as we have very hard water, and saves me spending a fortune on V!akal.
We get gallons of the stuff, as DH will eat pickled onions til they virtually come out of his ears!:D

Caterina

Thank you all,

Fridge pickles sounds nice, ideal for quick use. I have often used the leftover vinegar to dress salads but next time I am in the market I shall get a few cucumbers and give it a go and will report back.

trailingspouse

I was wondering this myself, just the other day (as I poured the vinegar from a jar of pickled onions down the sink).

Will use some of these ideas next time OH finishes the pickled onions.

Islandmaid

If your feeling daring try a 'Pickle back'

Pour the pickle juice into a shot glass and a shot of Bourbon in separate glass and chase the bourbon with the pickle juice :eek:

Sound gross, but it works.....:beer:

monnagran

I pour the vinegar from pickled onions into a bottle and use it as I would use ordinary vinegar. In fact I've stopped buying ordinary vinegar and use pickling vinegar instead. To my mind it is stronger.
Is it my imagination or just old age that makes me think that vinegar doesn't taste as it did in the 'good old days.'

x

katkin

I like to use the vinegar from gherkins and jalapeños in salad dressings. Mixing with oils and other flavourings they're really tasty.

[Deleted User]

MONNA I think a lot of what is sold as vinegar these days is 'NON BREWED CONDIMENT' and not properly made vinegar which is fermented out and aged to give it the proper taste. When we lived in Germany we bought ESSIG which was vinegar essence and had to be dliuted to use as vinegar we were used to, we found this out the hard way though!!!