Bloody Mary Refrigerator Pickles: Pickle Your Garnish in the Mix

Look at the back of a Bloody Mary seasoning bottle and then look at a pickle brine recipe. They are almost the same thing. Vinegar, dill, celery salt, and heat. That overlap is the whole idea here. You can pickle your Bloody Mary garnishes in Bloody Mary flavor, and the drink comes full circle.

These are quick refrigerator pickles. They are ready in a day, they keep for weeks in the fridge, and they are the easiest way to stock a garnish bar that tastes like the drink it is going into.

Why Bloody Mary Seasoning Makes a Great Pickle Brine

A pickle brine needs acid, salt, and aromatics. Stu's Bloody Mary seasoning already carries all three. The vinegar gives the tang, the celery salt and sea salt handle the seasoning, and the dill and smoked jalapeno bring the flavor that makes these taste like more than a plain dill pickle. You add a little more vinegar and water to build the volume, and the seasoning does the rest.

The payoff is a pickle that matches your glass. Drop one of these spears into a Bloody Mary and the garnish and the drink speak the same language.

Bloody Mary Refrigerator Pickles Recipe

Makes 1 quart. Pick one vegetable or mix a few. The brine is the same either way.

• 1 cup white vinegar (5 percent acidity)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup Stu's Bloody Mary seasoning
• Optional: 2 smashed garlic cloves and extra fresh dill

1. Heat the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a small pot, just until the salt and sugar dissolve. Do not boil it down.
2. Take it off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the Bloody Mary seasoning off the heat. Adding it after the heat protects the flavor.
4. Pack your vegetables into a clean quart jar. Pour the brine over them until covered.
5. Seal and refrigerate. Wait at least 24 hours before eating. They keep 3 to 4 weeks in the fridge.

Allergens: Contains fish (anchovy) and mustard. Check the seasoning label if you are serving guests with allergies.

Refrigerator Only. This Is Not a Canning Recipe.

Read this part before you start. These are refrigerator pickles and nothing else. This recipe has not been tested for water-bath canning and must not be canned for shelf storage. The acidity is not verified for safe canning, and canning it could be dangerous. Keep the jar in the refrigerator, eat within a few weeks, and you are in good shape.

If you want shelf-stable preserving done the right way, that is a different process with tested ratios. We cover the safe method in our guide on how to can tomato juice. Use that for anything meant to live in the pantry.

What to Pickle

Think of this as building your own garnish bar. Any of these work:

• Kirby cucumber spears
• Green beans
• Red onion
• Okra
• Carrot sticks
• Celery
• Hard-boiled eggs

The green beans and the spears are the classic Bloody Mary picks. The pickled eggs are the sleeper. Once you have a jar of them, they turn straight into Bloody Mary deviled eggs, so one jar feeds the drink and the appetizer table.

Build the Garnish Bar from One Bottle

This is the loop worth closing. The bottle that makes the drink also pickles the garnish that goes in it. Set out a few jars next to a Bloody Mary bar and let people build their own glass, spear by spear. It is the kind of small touch that makes a table feel put together.

Start with a bottle of Stu's Classic Bloody Mary seasoning and pickle from there. Ritual over routine.