Most canning recipes have salt listed as an ingredient and usually it’s listed as canning salt or pickling salt. This often leads to a lot questions such as….What’s the difference between canning salt and regular salt? Are canning salt and pickling salt the same thing? Can I use regular table salt instead of canning salt? Can I reduce or omit the salt in my home canning? Can I use salt substitutes in home canning?
All of these are great questions and we’re going to dive deep into the role of salt in canning and the best practices for using salt in home canned foods.
The Role of Salt in Canning
Unlike when fermenting food, when canning the salt is used for flavor and to help retain color, NOT to preserve the food. Here’s what the USDA says…
With the exception of fermented pickles and sauerkraut, salt is an optional ingredient. Salt can be omitted for canning tomatoes, vegetables, meats, poultry, and seafood since the amount added does not contribute to the safety of the food. However, in fermented sauerkraut and brined pickles, salt not only provides characteristic flavor but also is vital to safety since it favors the growth of desirable bacteria while inhibiting the growth of others. Therefore, do not attempt to make sauerkraut or fermented pickles by cutting back on the salt required.
https://extension.psu.edu/salt-in-canning
There are two basic ways of making pickles, one is to make a salt water brine and ferment the vegetables. Fermented pickles can be canned or kept in the refrigerator – most people keep them in the refrigerator so the beneficial microbes aren’t destroyed. When making fermented pickles, the salt cannot be reduced.
The other is by making a vinegar brine and either canning the pickles or keeping them in the refrigerator. When making a canned pickling recipe, a small amount of salt is used with vinegar to make a vinegar brine. In some recipes, like my Granny’s bread and butter pickles recipe, salt is used to soak the cucumbers before pickling to keep pickles from getting soggy.
Salt is also used when pressure canning vegetables and meats; it helps the food retain it’s natural color and texture.
There are many different varieties of salt and while any of them can be safely used in canning, not all of them are the best choice for quality.
Canning Salt vs. Table Salt
Canning salt is pure sodium chloride and doesn’t have any anti-caking chemicals such as calcium silicate or minerals in it. Canning salt and pickling salt are the exact same thing and usually packages will list both terms on the package.
Anti-caking chemicals and minerals, both naturally occurring and added, can cause cloudy brine. There isn’t anything unsafe about cloudy brine, but you won’t win a blue ribbon at the county fair unless your pickles have a clear brine.
While canning salt and rock salt are often sold in very similar packages in grocery stores, they are not interchangeable in preserving food. Rock salt is used for things like churning ice cream, in water softeners and deicing roads. Rock salt often has quite a lot of impurities in it and is not for food use.
Canning lime which is calcium hydroxide is NOT the same as pickling salt. It’s sometimes used when making pickles but it’s not pickle SALT.
Common table salt has anticaking agents added to it along with potassium iodide. There is non-iodized table salt available but it still has anticaking agents added to it. It will be listed in the ingredients list on the salt container.
Different Types of Salt
When considering what salt to use for canning, it’s important to also consider the size of the granules. Different salts have different size granules which means that a tablespoon of the fine salts will not weigh the same as a tablespoon of the coarse salts.
Most canning recipes are going to use canning salt which has small crystals, if you use a salt with larger crystals the flavor will be lacking since it won’t have as much salt. The recipe will still be safe since the salt is just for flavor, not for preserving the food.
You can always add salt when you serve the food, just like like you do when you accidently under season the homemade french fries. You can use whatever type of salt you normally eat when adding salt to the food when serving.
Canning Salt – As stated above canning salt is the purest form of salt with no trace minerals or anti-caking agents and is the best salt for canning. Canning salt has fine granules which makes it easy to dissolve in pickle brine. Ball, Mrs. Wages and Morton brands can be found in most grocery stores or any store that sells canning supplies such as Ace Hardware.
Sea Salt – Sea salt is what’s left after evaporating sea water. Most sea salt does not contain anti-caking agents but some does so you’ll need to check the label. While most sea salt is pure salt and non-iodized it will have other natural trace minerals in it, which can cause the brine to be cloudy. The granule size can vary from fine grains to coarse sea salt. Some sea salt will have anti-caking agents so be sure to read the label.
Kosher Salt – Kosher salt has large flat crystals which makes it perfect for seasoning meat. The large kosher salt crystals make it ideal for the koshering process (pulling out all the blood from meat according to Jewish dietary laws.) Because the kosher salt grains are much larger than canning salt grains, if you use the measurement in the canning recipe which is a volume measurement, the brine won’t be as salty. You’ll need to use almost twice as much kosher salt as canning salt to get the same level of saltiness as the recipe.
Redmond’s Real Salt – Redmond’s Real Salt is unrefined pure sea salt which means it doesn’t have anything added to it and the trace minerals have not been removed. This is my favorite salt and the one I use most in my kitchen – that includes canning. I don’t really care if the brine isn’t super clear so it works for me. That might not work for you and that’s okay, this is one area of food preservation that there are multiple safe choices. If you chose Redmond’s Real Salt, you can get a 10% discount by using the discount code schneiderpeeps
Himalayan Salt – Himalayan salt is a pink salt that is mined in Pakistan. While it is mostly sodium chloride like canning salt, it retains trace minerals which gives it the pink color. The minerals can cause the brine to be cloudy.
Ordinary Table Salt – Table salt is the salt that most people have in their salt shaker and pantry and is the worst salt for canning because of the added minerals, chemicals and anti-caking agents. If table salt is all you have, it is safe to use but the quality of the food can suffer.
Low-Salt and Salt Free Canning
While there are many benefits to using salt in your canning, there are some people who need to watch their salt intake. One of the wonderful things about canning your own food is that you get to control how much salt is in each jar.
For canned tomatoes, vegetables, meats, and seafood you can omit the salt and use salt substitutes like low-sodium salt when serving.
Canned pickle recipes are little more tricky since you’re canning low acid foods in a water bath canner. The only way to safely do that is to make sure the brine is acidic enough to make water bath canning safe. Fortunately, there are guidelines from the USDA….
Any fresh-pack pickle recipe that calls for as much or more vinegar than water and provides a finished product with at least 1/4 cup of 5 percent acid vinegar per pint jar of pickled products can be safely made without salt. Sweet pickles generally taste better without salt than dill pickles. If salt is omitted from fresh-pack dill pickles, try adding hot peppers, herbs and garlic instead. Dill pickles taste better if as little as 0.5 percent salt by weight of entire contents is added. This is the equivalent of 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of salt per pint jar of pickles.
https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/food-preservation-without-sugar-or-salt-9-302/
Low-sodium salt products are not recommended for canning for quality reasons. The added ingredients can cause the flavor to change and if used for pickles it can cause them to be soggy. That being said, if you want to try canning with a low-sodium salt it’s perfectly safe to do so. If you’re making pickles make sure that you follow the guidelines above.
Low-sodium salt should never be used fermenting pickles since the salt is part of the preserving process.
How to Store Salt
Salt doesn’t go bad and has an infinite shelf life but moisture can turn it into a hard block, if it’s not stored properly. All types of salt should be stored in an airtight container to keep the moisture out.
Any airtight container will work just fine for storing salt. I use one-gallon buckets, mason jars, and ziplock bags to store salt, it just depends on how much salt I’m storing.
