What to use instead of dill pickles
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Acid and crunch cutting fat in a sandwich
A brined cucumber keeps its cell structure, so it stays crisp while delivering vinegar and salt straight into a mouthful of fat.
Quick-pickled cucumberRan out
1 cucumber sliced thin + 1/2 cup white vinegar + 1/2 cup water + 1 tbsp sugar + 2 tsp salt, 30 min
Crunchier than a jarred pickle and much less sour. No dill or garlic depth, since that takes weeks.
Pickled red onionsRan out
1:1 by volume
Sharper and sweeter with a softer bite. They stain the bread pink and taste of onion rather than cucumber.
Sliced pepperonciniRan out
1:1 by volume
Adds mild heat with the acid and stays crisp. The skin can be tough, so slice them thin.
Sauerkraut, squeezed dryRan out
1/4 cup per 3 pickle slices
Sourer and more funky, and it goes limp within an hour on a warm sandwich. Squeeze it or the bread soaks through.
What doesn't work: Fresh cucumber slices. They have the crunch and none of the acid or salt, so nothing is cutting the fat and the burger just gets wetter as the cucumber gives up water into the bun.
Chopped sour bits folded into a cold mayonnaise-based salad or sauce
Little pieces of acid and salt distributed through a fatty base stop it reading as flat, and they add bite to something otherwise uniform.
Cornichons, choppedRan out
1:1 by volume
Firmer and sharper. They hold their crunch in a tartar sauce for days where dill pickle softens.
Capers, choppedRan out
2 tsp per 1 tbsp chopped pickle
Much saltier, so use less and hold back on the salt. Floral rather than dill-and-garlic.
Dill pickle relish, drainedRan out
1:1 by volume, drained in a sieve 5 min
Finer texture, so you lose the distinct pieces. Undrained it thins the sauce noticeably.
Giardiniera, choppedRan out
1:1 by volume
Brings celery, carrot and pepper along with the acid. Oilier if it is the oil-packed kind, so drain it well.
What doesn't work: Sweet relish in a tartar sauce. Sugar is exactly the wrong direction against fried fish, and the sauce ends up reading like a glaze rather than cutting anything. Sweet relish belongs in a Thousand Island, where the sugar is already part of the plan.
Sour brine seasoning the dish itself
The brine is diluted vinegar carrying salt, dill and garlic, so it seasons and acidifies at the same time without adding solid bulk.
White vinegar with salt and dillRan out
2 tsp white vinegar + 1/4 tsp salt + a pinch of dried dill per 1 tbsp brine
Sharper edges because there is no garlic or spice behind it. Close enough in a potato salad.
Sauerkraut juiceRan out
1:1 by volume
Sourer in a lactic rather than vinegary way, and funkier. Good in a rouladen, odd in a macaroni salad.
Olive brineRan out
1:1 by volume, then taste before adding any salt
Much saltier and less sour. It brings an olive flavour that shows up clearly in a mayonnaise dressing.
What doesn't work: Straight white vinegar poured in at the same volume as the brine. Pickle brine is roughly half water and heavily salted, so undiluted vinegar is about twice as sharp with none of the salt, and the potato salad puckers.