How is it possible that I’ve lived this long without realizing that I could reuse pickle juice to make new pickles? How?

A few days ago, I finished a GIANT 64 ounce jar of pickles (thanks, Woodman’s!) and I had all this leftover pickle juice that I didn’t want to throw out so much so that I just left the jar in my refrigerator. Kinda weird, but whatever. Then, this afternoon I saw that they were selling some lovely pickling cucumbers for 99 cents a pound at the farmers’ market in downtown Chicago, and I was struck with the idea to re-use my pickle juice to make NEW pickles. I bought a bunch of baby cucumbers and got excited!

At home, here’s the recipe I made up for myself:

1. Cut pickling cucumbers into strips and put them into a ball jar
2. Boil old pickle juice
3. Pour pickle juice over cucumbers in the ball jar
4. Add a few fresh cloves of garlic for flavor and additional vinegar if necessary to cover the pickles
5. Let sit until cool and then refrigerate for 24 hours or until the pickle juice has permeated the cucumbers.

Like most refrigerator pickles, I expect these to keep up to two or three weeks max, although in this apartment, I suspect they’ll last about two days.

UPDATE 6/23/12: These pickles are delicious! Can’t stop eating them!