Name: Pickleback
Total time: 2 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Irish whiskey; 30 ml Pickle juice

Pickleback
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Glass:

Serve in a Shot glass

Ingredients:
1 oz	Irish whiskey
1 oz	Pickle juice/brine/vinegar from pickled cucumber/gherkin chilled

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select a SHOT GLASS.
Prepare garnish of 3 skewered green olives.

How to make:

POUR whiskey into one glass.
POUR pickle brine into other glass.

Garnish:

Garnish with skewered olives.

Review:

Now, we do like a juicy wally (gherkin) with our cod 'n' chips, but necking the brine in which they are packed is another thing. Our American cousins have some strange habits-driving on the right, carrying the ball when playing football, and bowling underarm. So these eccentricities should be remembered when I tell you that the drinking of pickle brine, as one-half of a Pickleback is popular in New York City.

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History:

Created in 2006 at Brooklyn's Bushwick Country Club after the neighbouring business, McClure's Pickles, stored some of their pickles in the bar's basement.

Apparently, this inspired bartender, Reggie Cunningham, to serve Old Crow Bourbon with a shot of McClure's spicy pickle brine. The Ruotolo brothers, who owned the Manhattan bar Whiskey Town in Manhattan's East Village, discovered the drink and began serving it there, but with Irish whiskey replacing bourbon.

Nutrition:

One serving of Pickleback contains 74 calories

Alcohol content:

0.8 standard drinks
18.18% alc./vol. (36.36° proof)
10.9 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Hunter Newsome

9th July 2023 at 20:21

It's a miracle...you chase the liquor with the brine and any burn is immediately extinguished.

G. M. Genovese

5th June 2023 at 16:52

All time favorite of mine. Love at first slup... The Irish (West Cork) is ok here. Bourbon (bonded) is tops for me. Rye (tried with Sazerac brand) seems appropriate (but bonded, and the 'spicier' the better, instead), and was almost as good as with bourbon. I'm using the brine from my jar of Ba-Tampte Half Sour pickles out of Brooklyn. On point. It's all about the spice.

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