What you’ll need
Equipment: mixing bowl, spatula, knife, chopping board, measuring spoons and a covered serving dish. A food processor is optional.
How to make it
- Drain the pickles, keeping a little brine in a clean cup. Pat the pickles lightly with kitchen paper and chop them finely. Chop the ready-to-eat beef into small pieces separately. If using a food processor, pulse briefly so each ingredient stays in small pieces rather than becoming a paste.
- Stir the softened cream cheese in a bowl until smooth. A firm spatula works well; a hand mixer on low speed can help if the cheese is difficult to stir. Do not leave the cheese out for hours to soften.
- Fold in the chopped pickles and beef until evenly distributed. Add 2 tablespoons of brine and mix again, scraping around the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Taste with one of the crackers you plan to serve. For more pickle flavour, add extra brine 1 tablespoon at a time, stopping when the dip tastes right and remains thick enough to scoop. Pickles and beef already contribute salt, so there is no added salt in the base recipe.
- Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm the dip and let the flavours come together. The listed total time includes this chill; start with cream cheese already softened enough to stir.
- Transfer a small portion to a serving bowl and offer clean crackers or vegetable sticks alongside. Keep the remaining dip refrigerated and replenish the bowl as needed rather than leaving the whole batch out.
Which beef works best?
Use thinly sliced, ready-to-eat beef that you can chop into small pieces. The earlier Lowcountry Kings recipe used Buddig beef; this edition gives a weight so you do not have to guess a packet size. Do not use raw beef. A strongly salted dried beef will make a saltier dip, so taste before adding all of it.
Adjust the pickle flavour
Dill pickles give the familiar savoury flavour. Sweet pickles will make a noticeably different dip. Drain the chopped pickles before measuring, then add the brine gradually: you can thin a stiff dip, but too much liquid is harder to fix.
For more crunch without much extra liquid, fold in a few additional spoonfuls of drained chopped pickle. If the dip becomes too loose, chill it first before deciding whether it needs a little more cream cheese.
Make ahead and serve
Make the dip the day before, cover and refrigerate, then stir before serving. Keep crackers separate so they stay crisp. This recipe contains milk; check the beef, pickles and serving snacks for any other allergens relevant to your guests.
For a warm appetizer alongside it, try our everything bagel smoked cream cheese.
Store and serve with care
Keep the dip covered in the refrigerator at 40°F (4°C) or colder. Use within 3 days, or sooner if an ingredient’s use-by date or opened-package instructions require it. Refrigerate promptly after preparation and serving; count all the time spent out of the refrigerator, including softening and mixing.
Discard dip left out for more than 2 hours in total, or 1 hour when the temperature is above 90°F (32°C). For a long gathering, serve small portions and keep the rest cold. See FoodSafety.gov’s food-handling guidance.
A simpler kitchen clean-up
Drain the pickles over a bowl so brine does not run across the worktop. Once the dip is safely chilled, scrape cream-cheese residue from the mixing bowl into the bin, then wash the bowl, spatula and chopping board with warm water and washing-up liquid. Wipe spills promptly with a cleaner suitable for the surface, then rinse food-contact areas as the product label directs.
For the rest of the room, follow Simply Maid’s step-by-step kitchen cleaning guide.
Recipe notes & sources
Original Lowcountry Kings pickle-wrap dip, preserved by the Internet Archive · FoodSafety.gov food-handling guidance