Brine left in an empty jar of cheese or olives can be used in measured amounts in place of salt: olive brine works in salad dressing and olive-oil vegetable dishes, while cheese brine is useful in dough and soup. The one rule is to taste a dish containing brine before adding more salt. Do not pour off the brine while the cheese is still in the jar; it protects the cheese.
First, be clear about which brine you mean. Follow the storage instructions for cheese and olives sold in brine. Even liquid taken from an emptied jar for cooking must come from a product stored appropriately and within its label limits. Do not assume old brine will safely preserve new cheese; follow the new product’s storage instructions. Do not taste or use questionable brine.
Brine is salty, mildly acidic water. Olive brine also contains the olives’ own bitterness and aroma, while cheese brine takes on the milky flavor of the cheese. It brings both salt and its distinctive flavor into a dish. That is why it is used instead of salt, not together with it. The salt concentration varies from product to product and from jar to jar; the amount of salt contributed by brine per spoonful cannot be given as a fixed number of grams. Set the amount by tasting each time and add the brine gradually.
Olive brine can replace some of the lemon juice or vinegar in salad dressing, giving the dressing a distinct olive aroma along with salt. Shepherd’s salad and potato salad work well with this flavor. Use it as a small part of the cooking liquid in olive-oil vegetable dishes. A few spoonfuls can also be added to tomato sauce and lentil patties. Black olive brine is dark and stains light-colored dishes, so green olive brine has a wider range of uses.
Cheese brine is useful in dough and soup. When kneading bread, flatbread, or Poğaça (Turkish savory buns) dough, replacing some of the water with brine also brings salt into the dough; taste the brine before adding any additional salt. In lentil, tarhana, and vegetable soups, brine replaces salt and adds a mild cheese flavor. Cheese brine can also be added to the cooking water: boiled potatoes or pasta get their salt from the brine and are not salted separately.
One rule applies to every dish that contains brine: do not add salt at the start. Taste the dish when it is nearly finished, and add more only if needed. If the same dish also contains cheese, olives, or tomato paste, their effects add together. Check the brine itself, too: do not use a liquid that has become cloudy or foamy, developed a film or mold on top, or changed in smell. On the day the jar is emptied, either use the brine or strain it and refrigerate it in a sealed container. Label the container with the product it came from, because the two types of brine can look very similar.
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Ölçülü kullanmak şart, ben bir kez fazla koyup zeytinyağlıyı yenmeyecek hâle getirdim.