Dill Pickles substitute

Best substitute

Cornichons or Gherkins

Use the same amount by volume, chopped as the dill pickles you are replacing

Best for pickle soup and rassolnik

Close match

The nearest thing on almost any shelf, since they are the same vegetable in the same kind of brine, just smaller and usually firmer. French cornichons are noticeably sharper and more vinegary than a fermented Polish pickle, and they are typically flavoured with tarragon and shallot rather than dill and garlic, so a soup made with them tastes brighter, thinner and slightly aniseed-scented. Add half a teaspoon of dried dill or a tablespoon of chopped fresh dill per cup of chopped cornichons and a smashed garlic clove to the pot, and the difference all but disappears.

Other dill pickles substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Sauerkraut, Drained and Chopped
Taste and texture differ
Use ¾ cup for every 1 cup of pickles
An excellent swap in Eastern European cooking because it is doing exactly the same job with the same kind of lactic sourness.
What changes
What changes is flavour and texture: the dish tastes of cabbage rather than cucumber, and it goes slightly sweeter and more deeply funky, while cooked shredded kraut goes soft and stringy instead of giving you distinct crunchy dice. In a pot of zupa ogorkowa or rassolnik that is barely a downgrade. On a burger it is a completely different sandwich. Drain it well, chop it shorter than it comes, and keep the juice.
Best for
pickle soup and rassolnik, long-simmered stews and bigos, pierogi and dumpling fillings, sausage and potato dishes
Refrigerated fermented sauerkraut has the right sour-savoury depth. Shelf-stable canned kraut is flatter and more vinegary, so add a little of its liquid to compensate.
3Quick Fridge-Pickled Cucumber
Different taste
Use the same amount made in 30 to 60 minutes
The best answer when crunch matters.
What changes
Slice one cucumber thin, and pour over a brine of half a cup water, half a cup white vinegar, two teaspoons salt, one teaspoon sugar, half a teaspoon dill seed or a handful of fresh dill, a smashed garlic clove and a few peppercorns. Let it sit 30 to 60 minutes in the refrigerator. The result is crisper and greener than a jarred pickle, cleanly sharp rather than deeply sour, and completely lacking the fermented funk of a barrel pickle, so if it is going into a soup add a couple of tablespoons of the brine as well to deepen it.
Best for
sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs, salads and slaws, garnishing rich or fried food, any dish where the pickles stay raw
Use a firm thin-skinned cucumber, Persian or Kirby for preference. English cucumbers work but go floppy within a day, and standard waxed slicing cucumbers stay watery.
4Capers or Caperberries, Rinsed and Chopped
Taste and texture differ
⅓ the amount, plus a squeeze of lemon
A concentrated hit of exactly the salt-and-acid punch pickles provide, which is why they work so well in tartar sauce, remoulade and dressings.
What changes
They bring no crunch and no bulk, and they taste distinctly floral and briny rather than cucumbery, so a sauce made with them is sharper and more intense while a salad made with them just lacks something to bite. Rinse them first, because most jars are extremely salty, then chop them fine and add a squeeze of lemon to replace the volume of acid.
Best for
tartar sauce and remoulade, salad dressings and vinaigrettes, sauces for fish and schnitzel, chopped into butter or mayonnaise
Salt-packed capers need a longer soak than brined ones, at least 15 minutes with a change of water. Caperberries have a firmer, seedier bite that is closer to a pickle's texture.
5Other Pickled Vegetables From the Same Jar Family
Different taste
Use the same amount
Pickled green tomatoes, pickled cauliflower, pickled carrots, giardiniera and Eastern European mixed pickles all carry the same dill, garlic and brine flavour, which is most of what you were after.
What changes
Each vegetable brings its own sweetness and bite: pickled cauliflower and carrots stay firmer than cucumber and taste sweeter, pickled green tomatoes are softer and more acidic, and giardiniera usually carries chilli and oregano, which pushes the dish Italian. In a soup or salad they are genuinely good; sliced onto a sandwich they read as a substitution.
Best for
salads and relish trays, soups and stews, chopping into potato salad, serving alongside rich meat
Drain and taste one first. Some jars are heavily spiced with chilli or clove, which will show up clearly in a plain dish.
6Sweet or Bread-and-Butter Pickles, as a Last Resort
Different taste
Use the same amount rinsed, plus 1 teaspoon vinegar per ½ cup
This is the least-good option and worth being honest about.
What changes
Sweet pickles carry a lot of sugar, and in a savoury dish that sugar is obvious: a pot of pickle soup made with them tastes like sweet and sour soup, and tartar sauce turns cloying. If it is genuinely all you have, chop them, rinse them under cold water to wash off the syrup, and add a teaspoon of white vinegar per half cup to bring the sourness back. Then taste the finished dish before adding any other sugar. In a burger or a chicken salad, where a little sweetness is welcome, they are fine as they are.
Best for
burgers and sandwiches, chicken and ham salads, relish and dressings that already contain sugar
Do not use sweet pickles in Polish, Russian or Ukrainian soups. Sourness is the defining flavour of those dishes and sugar works directly against it.

What is Dill Pickles?

Dill Pickles is Dill pickles are cucumbers preserved in a salty brine flavoured with dill and garlic, sold either as naturally soured fermented pickles, called ogorki kwaszone in Polish, or as sharper vinegar-packed kosher dills.

Cooking tips

For pickle soup, grate the pickles on the coarse side of a box grater rather than dicing them. Grated pickle melts into the broth and flavours the whole pot, which is how zupa ogorkowa and rassolnik are traditionally built, while dice stays as separate chunks and leaves the broth bland.
Save the brine, because it is the other half of the seasoning. Add a splash near the end of cooking, off the boil, then taste before you add any salt. Cooks who throw the juice away and then wonder why the soup tastes weak are throwing away the acid.
If the recipe is Polish, Russian or Ukrainian, look for fermented pickles rather than vinegar pickles. Fermented ones are usually refrigerated, cloudy, and labelled kwaszone, naturally soured or simply fermented, and they taste sour-savoury with a lactic tang. Shelf-stable vinegar pickles are sharper and one-dimensional by comparison, and the difference is very visible in a simple soup.
Pickles are salty enough to season a dish on their own. Add them and their brine first, then taste, then salt. This is the single most common mistake with pickle-heavy recipes.
Cooked pickles never get their crunch back. If a dish needs texture, stir some raw chopped pickle in at the very end and keep the cooked ones for flavour.
If you plan to make shelf-stable pickles rather than fridge pickles, follow a tested canning recipe exactly and do not reduce the vinegar or change the salt-to-acid ratio, because the acidity is what makes the jars safe. Refrigerator pickles are the easy, safe home option. For shelf-stable canning, use guidance from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use sweet pickles instead of dill pickles?

Only if you accept the sweetness, and never in an Eastern European soup. Sugar works directly against the sourness those dishes are built on. If sweet pickles are all you have, rinse the chopped pickles under cold water and add a teaspoon of white vinegar per half cup, then taste the dish before adding any other sugar. On a burger or in a chicken salad they are perfectly good.

Can I just leave the pickles out?

It depends on the dish. In pickle soup, rassolnik or olivier salad the pickles are the point and leaving them out leaves you with a bland potato soup or a dull mayonnaise salad, so substitute sauerkraut, cornichons or at minimum a tablespoon or two of vinegar plus extra salt. In a sandwich or a burger you can skip them, though you will notice the loss of acidity cutting through the fat.

Are kosher dills the same as Polish ogorki kwaszone?

Not quite. Kosher dill on an American label usually just means dill and garlic in the brine, and most of those jars are vinegar-packed. Polish ogorki kwaszone are lacto-fermented in salt brine with no vinegar at all, which gives them a cloudier brine and a rounder, sour-savoury flavour closer to sauerkraut. Both work in most recipes, but the fermented ones are what Polish and Ukrainian dishes assume.

What is the difference between fermented and vinegar pickles?

Fermented pickles get their sourness from lactic acid produced by bacteria in a salt brine over days or weeks, which gives them a complex, savoury, slightly fizzy tang. Vinegar pickles get theirs from added acetic acid, which is sharper and more direct. For a plain soup or a simple salad the fermented version tastes noticeably deeper; in a heavily seasoned dish the difference matters much less.

Can I make my own dill pickles quickly?

Yes, refrigerator pickles are quick and reliable: slice cucumbers, cover them with a brine of equal parts water and white vinegar plus two teaspoons of salt and a teaspoon of sugar per cup of liquid, add dill, garlic and peppercorns, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. They keep two to three weeks in the refrigerator. Shelf-stable canned pickles are a different matter and require a tested recipe with its vinegar and salt unchanged, since the acidity is what keeps the jars safe.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Dill Pickles substitute

Other dill pickles substitutes

2Sauerkraut, Drained and Chopped

3Quick Fridge-Pickled Cucumber

4Capers or Caperberries, Rinsed and Chopped

5Other Pickled Vegetables From the Same Jar Family

6Sweet or Bread-and-Butter Pickles, as a Last Resort