Pickling ingredients

[Anny Middon]

I have a recipe I'd like to try. It calls for "pickling and canning salt."
What is this? Is it easy to find in stores (I can't remember ever seeing
it)? Can I substitute kosher salt? The recipe calls for soaking the
vegetables in a brine made with the salt.

Also, the recipe calls for pickling onions. What are these? Assuming I can
find small onions at the local farmers market, can I substitute them? If
not, can I use regular onions cut in chunks? (I'm guessing not.)

Anny

[zxcvbob]

Anny Middon wrote:
> I have a recipe I'd like to try. It calls for "pickling and canning salt."
> What is this? Is it easy to find in stores (I can't remember ever seeing
> it)? Can I substitute kosher salt? The recipe calls for soaking the
> vegetables in a brine made with the salt.

Kosher salt is OK, but not really a good substitute for pickling salt.
Pickling salt is like table salt with no anticaking ingredients nor iodine
added. It is easy to find, but you can substitute table salt in your
recipe if you want because I guess you brine the vegetables, then pour off
the brine, then pickle with an unsalted vinegar-sugar-spices brine.

> Also, the recipe calls for pickling onions. What are these? Assuming I can
> find small onions at the local farmers market, can I substitute them? If
> not, can I use regular onions cut in chunks? (I'm guessing not.)
>

Just small onions, or "boiling onions". Of course you can substitute
chunks or slices of regular onions. I would probably use white onions
rather than yellow; I'm not sure why. I know white onions stay firmer when
cooked.

Best regards,
Bob

[Lawrence Szenes-Strauss]

> I have a recipe I'd like to try. It calls for "pickling and canning salt."
> What is this? Is it easy to find in stores (I can't remember ever seeing
> it)? Can I substitute kosher salt? The recipe calls for soaking the
> vegetables in a brine made with the salt.

Pickling salt is just fine salt without any additives (iodine, among
others) which would leave a sediment in the jar. Kosher salt works,
but you'll have to be patient, as the larger crystals take longer to
dissolve. Also, you may have to add as much as twice the salt by
volume if you use kosher salt, since the coarse grind means there's a
lot of air in every tablespoon.

~L

[Frogleg]

On 31 Aug 2003 23:21:59 -0700, flourdus...@netscape.net (Lawrence
Szenes-Strauss) wrote:

>> I have a recipe I'd like to try. It calls for "pickling and canning salt."
>> What is this? Is it easy to find in stores (I can't remember ever seeing
>> it)? Can I substitute kosher salt? The recipe calls for soaking the
>> vegetables in a brine made with the salt.

Pickling salt is pure salt without the anti-caking agents regular
table salt contains. Kosher salt is large-flake salt, usually *with*
anti-caking agents. Iodized salt has iodine added as an essential
nutrient supplement. It has virtually no effect on pickles. See:

http://www.emro.who.int/Publications/EMHJ/0202/05.htm

Speaking from an entirely non-expert point of view, any salt you can
buy in the supermarket is 99 and 44/100ths sodium chloride and
appropriate for any recipe that *doesn't* specifically warn against
iodized, kosher, or $20/lb 'special' salt gathered by a unique breed
of trained birds from the shores of an unnamed eastern European lake.