We’re in that time of the year when we shake off our hearty, warm meals for an al fresco taste in the sun. As an ardent pasta lover, I’ll consume it in all its forms, and now we are firmly in pasta salad season.

Whatever your preferred pasta shape; whatever your preferred dressing, if the salad has a thick mayonnaise base, some experts have argued it needs one added ingredient. A small number of culinary experts shared their praise for pickle juice, describing it as the ‘perfect’ ingredient to “lift” any pasta salad. As a frequent pasta consumer, sometimes I find pasta salads can be swimming in thick mayonnaise, with no reprieve from the creaminess.

Recipe creator and writer Jessica Randhawa told Simply Recipes: “A generous splash of pickle juice (usually from dill or bread-and-butter pickles) completely transforms macaroni salad from good to exceptional.”

Gherkin juice will help “brighten the salad with subtle acidity and sweetness, balancing the richness of the mayo-based sauce and enhancing all the other flavours”, allegedly. I’m not arguing with the science behind their recommendation.

A perfectly balanced dish draws flavour and harmony from sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami ingredients.

I used the base of a tuna pasta salad recipe from Good Food, switching out the bio yoghurt for mayonnaise, and excluded the addition of apple cider vinegar for the gherkin brine. Clearly the culinary whizzes at Good Food knew of the importance of a sharp, tang to cut through the creaminess.

The addition of the mustard powder is added to help bring the heat. The experts never indicated how much brine should be added, but that there should be ‘just enough’ to cut through the mayonnaise base.

So what does any good chef do? Eye-ball it, or use Jamie Oliver’s method of a “dollop of this” or a “glug of that”.

I estimate around two tablespoons of gherkin brine were added - which was less than half the amount of apple cider vinegar listed in the Good Food recipe. However it was clear once I’d tossed the salad around that the sharp, vinegary juice hadn’t fully incorporated into the dressing.

Resorting to small glugs of the pickle juice, I attempted to cover as much of the salad’s surface area as possible without drowning the salad. This was in vain.

It took a lot more than the prescribed four tablespoons to emanate any flavour from the vinegary water. Either the gherkin brine was ineffective, or the experts were off their rocker.

I tasted the gherkins, they were gher-king, if not a bit lacklustre. However, pouring nearly three quarters of a jarful of brine into the pasta salad should’ve done the trick.

Reader, I can confirm, it did not touch the sides. Not in the slightest.

I’d be interested to know if Good Food’s addition of apple cider vinegar has the edge the salad needed to make it a harmonious bite. I think better clarity is needed about the strength of the brine the gherkins or pickles come in, as some, clearly, are just muddled pickle-water than a sharp shot of vinegar.

Below is the recipe I used, with the added step of “winging it” with the gherkin brine. The fate of the salad’s balance is in your hands.

Tuna Pasta Salad

• 250g wholemeal penne
• 240g mayo or bio yogurt
• 2 tsp English mustard powder
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• Handful of basil leaves, finely chopped
• 320g tuna in spring water
• 2 red peppers, deseeded and diced
• 340g can sweetcorn, drained
• Gherkin brine

Method

Boil the pasta for ten minutes until al dente, then drain and rinse under cold running water. Drain again. Meanwhile, mix the mayo or yogurt, mustard, olive oil, onion and basil together in a large bowl, then stir in the tuna, red peppers and sweetcorn.

Stir through the pasta and serve in bowls or pack into containers for work or a picnic. Will keep, covered, in the fridge to eat the next day.

Add the gherkin brine in increments to the desired taste.