Apple Cider Vinegar Pickles | The Perfect Sweet and Savory Brine

Basic Brine Recipe with Apple Cider Vinegar for Perfect Pickles

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I’m currently on a pickle kick…pickles of all types, whether salty, sweet, spicy or all of the above. I could literally eat pickles all day and I do. I had pickled onions with breakfast, pickled peppers for lunch, and I’m sure I will have something else before the night is over.

Pickles are the best snack, an awesome condiment, a salad topping, what’s missing in your sandwich? So good. No, I am not pregnant.

So over the last few weeks months I’ve been experimenting with my pickle brine. This won’t be the last one I make but I was happy with the balance of sweet and savory in this recipe. Salty, but not too salty. It’s also not super sweet like bread and butter pickles, it has just the right amount. I do like those extra sweet pickles too, but sometimes you just want slightly sweet to go with the salt. This recipe makes a great all-purpose pickle brine.

Anyway, after some tweaking, this is what I settled on. The perfect sweet and savory pickle brine. You might end up adjusting yours to taste but I think you can’t go wrong with this. I could bore you talking about pickles all day but I won’t. This recipe is for refrigerator pickles, not for canning. That is not my area of expertise.

Why Make Apple Cider Vinegar Pickles

First of all, why make pickles at home at all? They are tasty, that’s why. They are a great way to preserve that big bag of cukes you know you’re going to forget about and find drowning in a pool of slime in your fridge (it’s me, I do this.) Not only that, store bought pickles have a lot of unnecessary additives that aren’t very healthy. When you make your own you can control your level of salt, sugar, and skip the weird preservatives.

You can also add health benefits not found in store bought pickles. Apple cider vinegar is a fermented substance that is good for lots of things, like being helpful with digestion. It can regulate blood sugar levels, and it’s antifungal and antibacterial (to the bad ones) which also means it will help preserve your pickled veggies. I don’t like to get too out of hand posting health claims. Some of them have very little evidence, but not all of them. Here is a good article on another website explaining what ACV can and cannot do based on some studies.

You want to make sure you use raw apple cider vinegar. Braggs is a popular brand, but I get it cheaper from Aldi and even Walmart has organic for a decent price here. It’s not that you can’t use regular vinegar, it just doesn’t have the living bacteria or “the mother” which is responsible for a lot of the health benefits.

Using honey instead of regular sugar also makes this brine a little bit healthier and throws in some more antimicrobial action. I have several posts now with raw honey as a major ingredient. I’m clearly a fan.

Apple Cider Vinegar Pickle Ingredients

• Salt, your choice. I used coarse sea salt. Really the only thing that matters is the grind because it affects the actual amount when you measure. If you are using a fine salt you may want to reduce the volume and use slightly less. Unfortunately I haven’t been weighing the salt, but I know a lot of people don’t own a kitchen scale anyway. I think this works just fine.
• Honey, preferably raw. It’s just better for you. If you’re going to have something sweet it might as well have some benefits, right? Read more about the perks of raw honey in this post.
• Apple cider vinegar, preferably raw for the same reasons as above. It’s better for you. If you don’t have it that’s ok though, white vinegar or wine vinegar will work too. Just a slightly different flavor. I use regular white vinegar all the time. You can also substitute vinegar with strong kombucha in any recipe. I need to write a separate post about this and I will soon, I promise!
• Pickling spice, your choice. This can be a premixed pickling spice or as simple as some peppercorns and mustard seed. Do what you like. If you have no idea just use a mix. I recently ordered this spice mix and I’m obsessed with it. I’ve been putting it in everything. Bonus: it’s cheap. You won’t regret buying it.
• Garlic cloves are optional if you don’t like it. I put garlic in everything. We won’t be using a lot. Just one or two cloves or even half of one. It’s so good for you and it really adds to the flavor. You can use both the garlic and honey from this Fermented Honey and Garlic recipe here.

How to Make the Pickles

Note, the exact recipe at the bottom is enough brine to cover a 16 oz. jar stuffed with veggies or 2x 8 oz. jars.

• Peel and slice the garlic clove.
• Fill a large glass measuring cup or small saucepan with water.
• Add the honey, salt, garlic, spice, vinegar and stir well. If honey and salt wont dissolve, gently warm on low heat. It does not need to be piping hot, just warm enough to fully dissolve the salt and honey. Remove from the heat immediately.
• Add the veggie spears or slices of choice to a glass jar.
• Pour the cooled brine over the vegetables until fully submerged.
• Put the lid on the jar, give it a shake and keep in the fridge. Can be used as soon as a few hours, best if left overnight.

That’s it, I hope you enjoy these. Let me know what you think in the comments!

General Pickling Tips

I like my pickles best after a couple of days when they soak up all of the flavors. Cut your vegetables thick to stay crisp and crunchy.

I reuse jars all the time but I’m starting to notice some are rusting. I absolutely cannot stand plastic anything but this is a special case where I think I prefer it. Just the lid being plastic, not the jars themselves. I always use glass jars. You can get replacement lids here. The kimchi jars I get from the Asian grocery store work perfect because those usually have plastic lids too.

If you want to try some fancy spices, try out The Spice House. They do have their own pickling blend but also everything you could possibly need to come up with your own. I have a bit of a spice collecting habit and love to try all different blends. They also make nice gifts for people who love to cook.

If you are a minimalist and truly just want the basic brine, leave out the spice and garlic. If you want to kick it up even more add some dried pepper flake or fresh minced peppers.

What Vegetables to Pickle?

Experiment! Try different veggies. You might find you like them better pickled. It’s an easy way to get more veggies in your diet. You can make apple cider vinegar pickles with cucumbers of course, but don’t limit yourself. Try cauliflower, green beans, carrots, beets, onions, celery, bell peppers, or cabbage.

Add these vegetables to your sandwiches, rice bowls, egg dishes, tacos, and stew toppings.

I’m not done with pickles or brine either, stay tuned for my booch brined chicken and lime pickled onions coming soon…

What’s your favorite vegetable to pickle? Let me know in the comments.