For those of us who have never canned our own peaches, pears, or yes, pickles, it's a common question - especially when we plan to pick up pickling salt for pastimes unrelated to actual pickling.
For instance, pickling salt is often recommended for use in neti pots.
This is a fine idea, assuming you know what pickling salt is, where to get it, and how to check the label to make sure the salt is actually safe for the pickling process.
(It also helps to know what neti pots are, too, but that's a subject far removed from pickles and peaches, or at least our dinner guests would certainly hope so.
) So back to the original question.
What is pickling salt? More Pure Than Average Table Salt.
Unlike the average table salt, pickling salt (sometimes called canning salt) contains no iodine or anti-caking agents.
This is important, because those extra ingredients can hurt the appearance of vegetables and fruits during the canning process.
For instance, iodine can be oxidized by many foods, which can eventually darken our peaches and pears to murky shades unworthy of blue-ribbon awards.
Similarly, anti-caking agents, with names like calcium silicate, might be terrific for keeping salt flowing freely over french fries in foul weather, but many of these agents don't dissolve in water.
The result? Funny-looking floaties, another arch nemesis of the blue-ribbon canner.
Extra-Fine? Sometimes, if You Can Find It.
Purity aside, pickling salt is often extra-fine, meaning it's ground into smaller grains than its big, bold cousin, traditional Kosher salt.
This poses a challenge for salt-seekers, because as fewer people produce their own canned goods, the perfect salt for canning can be harder to find at your local grocery store.
In fact, often the only salt on the grocery-store shelf deemed pure enough for home-canning is, indeed, traditional Kosher salt.
So, while Kosher salt is usually pure enough for peaches and pears, those coarse grains aren't always ideal for the canning process.
Thankfully, this problem is easily solved with a handy-dandy salt grinder.
Just pop the big-grained salt into the grinder, give a few grinds, and presto! Kosher salt magically becomes pickling salt - perfect for nice, golden peaches, or even your neti pot.
What Does Pickling Have to Do With Neti Pots? The reason this type of salt is often recommended for things unrelated to canning, such as for use in neti pots, comes down to purity and granule-size.
Advising someone to buy pickling salt is a quick and easy way to indicate that the salt should be non-iodized, free of anti-caking agents, and if you're lucky, finely ground too.
Label-checking tips and photos are available at http://www.
neti-netti-pot.
com/neti-pot-salt.
html.
Remember, it's okay to tell someone to pick up salt that's safe for pickling, as long as the person receiving this advice knows the answer to the very first question, "What is pickling salt, anyway?"