Recipe
5 O’Clock Fridays: Fancy A$$ Pickleback Shots with Eden Grinshpan
Pickles taste pretty dank next to a Jewish deli sandwich, but you haven’t lived until you’ve taken a pickleback shot: a shot of whiskey chased by straight up pickle juice. All that salt and flavor mask the burn of the whiskey, and pickle juice is a damn good hangover cure.
So with my always-alcoholic mind, I thought it’d be dope to pickle some random veggies and use that innovative pickle juice as a chaser with various types of hard liquor. But I couldn’t do this alone. I called my girl Eden Grinshpan — TV personality, blogger, and foodstagram star — to help me out with this one.
It turned out to be a turned up time, to say the least, and the dranks turned out real good. I pickled ’em using my grandma’s method, but if you want to pickle like a Le Cordon Bleu graduate (aka Eden’s way), check out her method on her blog. (Look how legit hers looks… accawkward.)
Photo courtesy of edeneats.com
Pineapple & Ginger + Rum
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 hours
- Total Time: 24 hours+
- Servings: 4
- Easy
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pineapple, cut
- 1/2 cup ginger, skinned and cut
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 head garlic, with skin (option)
- Salt
- Rum
Step 1
Fill up your mason jar halfway with some H2O.
Step 2
Drop in an uncooked egg and let it sink. Add in enough salt until it floats. Then take that egg out, duh.
#SpoonTip: This will make it real salty. If you plan to pickle these for more than 24 hours, don’t bother with the egg trick and shoot for 1-2 tablespoons of salt.
Step 3
Cut up some pineapple and toss it in there.
Step 4
Skin your ginger. Chop it up. Throw it in.
Step 5
Throw in garlic if you’d like. Eden doesn’t recommend it, but whateva, yolo.
#SpoonTip: Make sure the water covers all the ingredients.
Step 6
Jar that puppy up and let it sit overnight.
#SpoonTip: To help this ish pickle faster, put it next to a window where there’s plenty of sunlight.
GIF by Max Bartick
Step 7
Strain out some of the pickle juice. Throw back a shot of rum and chase with dat pickled drank.
#SpoonTip: It might smell like hot fart, but it doesn’t taste like it.
Red Pepper & Jalapeño + Tequila
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 hours
- Total Time: 24 hours+
- Servings: 4
- Easy
Ingredients
- 1 red pepper, sliced
- 1 jalapeño, sliced
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 head garlic, with skin
- 2 tablespoon vinegar
- Salt
- Peppercorns
- Tequila
Step 1
Same drill as above. Before jarring, pour in some peppercorns.
#SpoonTip: Cut the pepper like Eden. She’s a pro.
Step 2
24 hours later, take a shot of tequila and chase with this spicy, garlicky sip of Mexico.
Apples + Fireball
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 hours
- Total Time: 24 hours+
- Servings: 4
- Easy
Ingredients
- 1 apple, sliced
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 head garlic, with skin (optional)
- 2 tablespoon vinegar
- Salt
- Fireball Whisky
Step 1
You know what to do.
Step 2
After a 24-hour dance break, take a shot of Fireball and wash it down with some pickled apple juice. That don’t taste like your recess days, tho.
Coleslaw + Tomato Juice & Vodka
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 hours
- Total Time: 24 hours+
- Servings: 4
- Easy
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coleslaw, shredded
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoon vinegar
- 1/4 head garlic, with skin
- Salt
- Peppercorns
- Tomato juice
- Vodka
Step 1
Throw all of your ingredients into a jar like you have 3x already.
#SpoonTip: Pickled coleslaw ≠ kimchi.
Step 2
Strain some of that juice into a cup and add some tomato juice. Take a shot of vodka and wash it down with this deconstructed coleslaw Bloody Mary.
Lemon + Gin
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 hours
- Total Time: 24 hours+
- Servings: 4
- Easy
Ingredients
- 1 lemon, quartered
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 head garlic, with skin (optional)
- Chili pepper flakes
- Salt
- Gin
Step 1
Like, you get it by now.
Step 2
Chase a shot of gin with this lemon chili pickle juice. Hell. Yes.