Pickling Spice Substitutes: What to Use in the Jar and in the Pot

There’s no standard recipe for pickling spice. Three commercial blends we compared differ by as many as five ingredients.¹²³ Out of pickling spice? The best substitute is almost always one you mix yourself from whole spices, starting from the core those blends share: mustard seed, allspice, coriander, cloves, bay leaf, pepper, mace and chile. The bigger question is where the spices are going: into a jar of pickles, where form matters, or into a pot, where it matters much less.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

Why whole spices matter in a jar

The National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) lists ground spices as one cause of dark or discolored pickles and recommends whole spices.⁴ Leaving spices in the jars is another cause, and NCHFP says to put them loosely in a cheesecloth bag you can pull out before canning.⁴ Its quick dill pickle recipe uses 2 tablespoons of whole mixed pickling spice tied in a clean white cloth.⁵ Cooking spices too long in the vinegar, or using too many, can make the pickles taste strong and bitter.⁴

So for pickles, your substitute should be whole spices in a bag, not a ground seasoning. Swapping spices changes the flavor. We found no NCHFP guidance on whether it affects safety, so in a tested canning recipe, change only the spices and keep the vinegar, water and salt exactly as written.

If pickling spice is flavoring a pickle

1. Make your own

Here’s a basic homemade pickling spice, about 1/2 cup: 3 tablespoons yellow mustard seed, 1 tablespoon coriander seed, 1 tablespoon whole allspice, 2 teaspoons black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon whole cloves, 1 teaspoon dill seed, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 4 bay leaves crumbled, and a blade of mace if you have one. It builds on the core the commercial blends share.¹²³

The version in The Art of Preserving, published by Williams Sonoma, leans harder on coriander, matching it with the mustard seed, and adds a broken cinnamon stick along with peppercorns, allspice, dill seed, red pepper flakes, bay and a couple of cloves. The book says to store it airtight for up to a year.⁶

Ratio (Method): Use the finished mix one for one in place of store-bought pickling spice.

Going by PROSEA’s figures, allspice and cloves share their main aroma compound,⁷⁸ so one can partly cover for the other. Whole white (yellow) mustard seeds have no smell,⁹ and their heat comes from a reaction that needs crushing and water,¹⁰ so whole seeds in a brine add more texture and mild flavor than heat.

2. A short version with what you have

Ratio (Method): Build the mix from whatever whole spices you’ve got, with mustard seed and coriander as the biggest parts, then allspice, peppercorns and a bay leaf. Use the total one for one in place of pickling spice. Got dill seed? Add it. McCormick’s blend has none,¹ but The Spice House and World Spice include it,²³ and NCHFP’s dill pickle recipe adds dill to the jars separately.⁵

The Spice House explains its own blend’s logic: cassia, cloves, allspice and star anise for warm sweetness, and pepper, mustard seed, dill seed and juniper for a savory tang.² When you’re short on spices, keeping something from each side is a good guide.

If pickling spice is flavoring corned beef

The Spice House calls its blend ideal for corned beef and suggests five parts pickling spice to one part coriander seed.² In a braise, not a jar, the discoloration NCHFP describes doesn’t apply, so ground spices can stand in for whole if that’s all you have. Strain or skim as you like.

Ratio (Computed, whole to ground): McCormick’s conversions are 5 whole allspice berries (about 1 teaspoon) to 1 teaspoon of ground allspice, and 1 teaspoon of coriander seed to 1 1/4 teaspoons of ground coriander.¹¹ Those are volume figures, not potency figures. For the other spices, start with the same volume, ground, and taste.

If pickling spice is a warm note in a stew or braise

McCormick suggests its pickling spice for brines, marinades and stews.¹ In a stew, a ground blend with an overlapping set of spices can stand in, as long as you’re fine with a different flavor. None of these belongs in a jar of pickles.

Ratio (Method): Start with half the pickling spice amount, since these are ground and release flavor fast, and taste before adding more. Check the label for salt and sugar, especially in jerk seasoning: McCormick’s version lists sea salt and sugar.¹⁷

Crab boil seasoning: not for pickles

Old Bay’s label lists celery salt (salt and celery seed), spices including red and black pepper, and paprika.¹⁸ It’s ground and salted, so by NCHFP’s guidance it’s a poor choice for a jar,⁴ and its salt will throw off a brine. It shares pepper and chile with pickling spice and little else its label names.

What isn’t known

• No standard defines pickling spice, so “one part” of a commercial blend isn’t a fixed mix.¹⁹
• We couldn’t confirm the ingredient list of a whole-spice crab boil product from a label, so we haven’t ranked those.
• You’ll sometimes read that pickling spices are picked because they hold up to heat and fermentation. We found no source that says so.

Related

• Pickling spice and pickling salt
• Corned beef and cabbage spices
• The component spices: allspice, cloves, coriander, bay leaves, dill, mustard seed uses, black pepper, cinnamon, mace, juniper berries
• Swaps for the components: allspice substitutes, coriander substitutes, bay leaf substitutes, dill substitutes
• Other blends: baharat, garam masala, ras el hanout, jerk seasoning, Old Bay seasoning