Can I reuse my onion pickling solution?

Question

I pickled white onions about 3 days back use an equal mix of vinegar and water with little salt and some garlic. I'm still going over the jar till today, and I was wondering if it'd be fine to pickle my next batch in the same solution? What if I removed the garlic?

Answer 1

I wouldn't, for a couple of reasons:

1. By doing half-and-half water, you may have raised the pH of the pickling liquid above 4.6. As such, you could have bacteria in there, and the more times you re-use it the less safe it will get.

2. The acid/salt/sugar balance of the liquid will have changed due to the first batch of onions, likely in a way that will make it less effective at pickling.