3

I'm trying to make Kool-Aid Pickles (koolickles). I've tried with quartered Ba-Tampte pickles and I seem to get it right, but I'm not seeing the results I expect with halved pickles. I want to go with halved because quartered seem to shrivel unappealingly.

I have a 2 quart jar of manually halved pickles (they were originally whole). Into the pickle brine I dissolved a cup of fruit punch Kool-Aid and a cup of white sugar. After 2 weeks, the coloring has only soaked half-way into the pickles. They look red on the outside, but are green on the interior. My intent was to get the full red all the way through. They taste almost right, but I think they could do with better penetration.

Am I going to be stuck using only quartered pickles? Should I have used more Kool-Aid, or maybe a different flavor? Should I consider a different pickle brand?

JoshDM
  • 237
  • 1
  • 3
  • 11
  • 4
    I apologize for judging your culinary choices. Koolickles? Ewwwww. – KatieK Nov 28 '13 at 07:13
  • 1
    You're as bad as my wife. Don't judge till you've tried them. They've been the ball of the last three BBQs. She still refuses to even consider them. The kids love 'em. – JoshDM Nov 28 '13 at 07:14
  • This sounds extremely overly obvious, but you are being sure to used the unsweetened variety of Kool-Aid, right? If that is what's being called for? Or alternately, the sweetened version if *that's* what's being asked for? – Jolenealaska Nov 28 '13 at 10:57

2 Answers2

3

It’s not one cup of Koolaid it’s supposed to be two packages of unsweetened Koolaid plus 1 and 1/2 cups sugar mixed in the pickle juice, shake until sugar dissolved. Pour over pickles until fully covered and put the lid on every day shake to stir sugar. At the two week mark they are perfect. Any type of Koolaid even mixed like lemon orange etc…

Jolenealaska
  • 58,386
  • 30
  • 196
  • 321
Dena Ziyaye
  • 31
  • 2
  • Hi Dena. I made a small edit, clarifying that you are referring to the unsweetened product. As always, feel free to edit further or revert. You'll probably get a well-deserved badge for resurrecting this question with a helpful answer! Welcome to Seasoned Advice. – Jolenealaska Jun 29 '21 at 22:08
1

From your link and some other sources, seems that lenghwise cutted pickles will give you more color penetration (and probably flavour too).

Since adding too much kool-aid for the color would also change the taste, I'd go with some food coloring product.

woliveirajr
  • 355
  • 1
  • 4
  • 14