Homemade Bloody Mary Pickles

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These homemade bloody mary pickles infuse all of your favourite flavours of a bloody mary cocktail, into a crisp, tangy pickle! Zingy clamato, spicy horseradish, and all the savoury fixings make for a delicious snack or side dish. The best part is these are refrigerator pickles - no special method required! If you're looking for more clamato inspo, serve up some homemade modelo micheladas!

Bloody mary pickles pictured in a jar, with a fork pulling out pickles.

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Why This Recipe Works
Ingredients
Instructions
Expert Tip
Substitutions
Variations
Equipment
Make Ahead & Storage
Recipe FAQs
Homemade Bloody Mary Pickles
💬 Comments

Why This Recipe Works

Full of familiar flavours! A bloody mary is a breakfast / brunch classic. These pickles are full of bright, familiar flavours, without the cocktail!

No prep work! Because this is a fridge pickle recipe, you do not need to sterilize any jars or do any of the prep work needed for canning and pickling!

Easy pantry ingredients! You do not need anything fancy to put together these pickles - you may even have these ingredients hanging out in your pantry already!

Ingredients

Clamato juice: This is my Canadian nod to these pickles, by using Clamato instead of tomato juice. Clamato is the base for the Canadian favourite, bloody caesars. The hint of clam juice in the clamato adds a delicious salty, brininess that goes perfectly with pickles.
Mini cucumbers: Mini cucumbers tend to be a little bit easier to find than pickling cucumbers. The mini cucumbers have a smoother exterior than pickling cucumbers, but they work just as well.
Prepared horseradish: You can use extra spicy horseradish or regular, depending on your preferences.
Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco hot sauce
Fresh garlic
White vinegar

A full list of ingredients with measurements is located on the recipe card, below.

Instructions

Prep Work Before Cooking

Collecting all your ingredients - This will make cooking so much easier. Gather all the spices you will need, and keep them nearby.

Step by step instructions to prepare pickles, in a collage.

Using sharp knife, cut your cucumbers into spears. To do so, cut the cucumber in half vertically, and then cut those halves in half, vertically again. Place the spears into a 32 oz. jar.

Add the pickling ingredients to a sauce pan over medium heat. Let the mixture come to a simmer, and take off the heat. Let the liquid cool until it is warm.

Carefully pour the warm liquid over the cucumbers, in the jar. Leave the jar open until the jar has reached room temperature.

Once the jar has reached room temperature, close the jar and refrigerate the pickles for a minimum of 30 minutes. The longer the pickles sit, the more flavourful they will get.

Expert Tip

This recipe makes for a vinegar-forward pickle! If you prefer something a little less sour, you can cut half of the vinegar with water. You can also add a couple of tablespoons of sugar, if you like the sweet and sour pickle flavour.

Substitutions

Clamato juice: Feel free to use regular tomato juice, for a more classic bloody mary flavour.
Mini cucumbers: If you can find pickling cucumbers, feel free to use them. You can also use regular cucumbers and cut them into slices, if you prefer.
Tabasco sauce: Use any Louisiana hot sauce that you can find, or have on hand.

Variations

Boozy: Add a shot or two of vodka to the jar, before closing up the lid. This will give the cucumbers a boozy twist.
Citrusy: If you like lemon or lime in your bloody mary, add some slices of lemon or lime to the jar of the pickles for a citrus twist.

Equipment

This is what I used to make this recipe - Please be mindful that different equipment and cooking utensils may yield varying results. Most of my favourite equipment can be found on my storefront.

32 oz. Jar
Sauce pan

Make Ahead & Storage

You can make these pickles up to one week prior to when you want to serve them. Because these pickles do not go through a standard canning process which involve sterilization, I recommend only keeping these for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

Closeup shot of the opened jar, with pickles exposed.

Recipe FAQs

What is the difference between refrigerator pickles and canned pickles?

Both refrigerator pickles and canned pickles are processed in vinegar solutions. Canned pickles undergo a water bath canner, which sterilizes the jars and keeps the pickles shelf-stable. Refrigerator pickles have to be stored in the fridge, and if kept for too long, run the risk of a bacterial mess.

What to eat with bloody mary pickles?

These pickles are great as a snack on their own, or on a game day platter with spinach artichoke dip and everything bagel dogs. They also go great with homemade pulled pork sandwiches, too!

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