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Crazy Cooking Confession: Drinking the O Juice

Posted by on August 4 2008 in Personal, Recipe, Trends

olive-jar.jpg

Last time I shared a secret with you guys, you totally ripped me a new one, yet for some reason I still feel compelled to keep on sharing every weird thing I do.

I know Edouble has already told ya’ll about the great pickletini, but I think you still may not quite understand how much we love drinking salty, briny water. Back in the day, when I finished a jar of pickles or olives, I used to simply pour the excess liquid down the drain before washing the jar out and recycling it. But then when I lived with Edouble, I was sharply reprimanded for this wasteful action. Why? Girl likes to take the jar and drink the leftover juice like it’s lemonade. This is an action that has caused more than one observer to gasp in horror and/or keel over in laughter.

I’ve since tried it myself, and while I can’t down an entire jar of the stuff as quickly as Edouble can, I have to admit I have become a full-fledged fan, and will never again throw away leftover olive juice.

So recently I was throwing together some kind of tortellini explosion style dish, emptying my fridge and throwing all kinds of randoms in with the pasta.


I finished it off with some garlic-stuffed green olives (greatest invention ever btw), and then on a whim I poured the leftover olive juice over my pasta. It was amazing! Mixed in with butter and garlic and olive oil, it wasn’t that strong of a flavor; it just gave the pasta an extra salty-briny kick. I loved it.

So I was just wondering, does anyone else cook with olive juice (aka delicious salt water)? And what other weirdo things does everyone throw into their cooking? Don’t be afraid to share…

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7 Responses leave one →
  1. August 4, 2008

    I use pickle and/or olive juice as a base to marinate flank or skirt steak. I usually throw some other spices in (different every time) and it is great! Make the meat really tender. I also LOVE really dirty martinis!

  2. August 4, 2008

    i bet that would be good in hummus

  3. August 5, 2008

    It’s only when you start drinking the pickled octopus juice that you have to worry. :)

  4. August 5, 2008

    ooooh – love the steak and the hummus idea. On the agenda.

  5. August 5, 2008

    I am so proud of you BS for finally liking olives! I bet you could use the brine water to salt meat before you grill it? Maybe soak steak in it for a while since its salt? Maybe it would be super tender and have a tinge of olive?

  6. Beth permalink
    August 5, 2008

    It’s also good to put in a marinade for chicken. A little fresh lemon juice, parsley, garlic. Grill and top w/the olives and feta very tasty.

  7. April 3, 2010

    I put some of the olive juice from garlic stuffed green olives in the yolks when making deviled eggs. – Yummy. Now the old way of making them taste just wrong to me.

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