I am also diabetic. I used the same brine from the standard no sugar sweet pickles, but used the spices fromm the bread and butter recipe from So Easy to Preserve/ Univ. of Georgia site. Salt is not necessary for preserving the pickles, just for flavor. So this is what I did, use the vinegar, water, Splenda and salt from this recipe : THEN used the spices from the second recipe, just replacing them for the ones in this recipe. I did NOT soak in the salt first. They are really good sugar free bread and butter pickles. If you don't want the salt, then you can omit it all together. I did not worry about it since I figured it was dispersed through all the jars, so it wasn't that much per jar. I processed my pint and half pint jars for 10 min. How do I? ...Pickles for Special Diets -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Preparing and Canning Pickles for Special Diets No-Sugar Added Sweet Cucumber Slices 3� pounds of pickling cucumbers boiling water to cover sliced cucumbers 4 cups cider vinegar (5%) 3 cups Splenda� 1 tablespoon canning salt 1 cup water 1 tablespoon mustard seed 1 tablespoon whole allspice 1 tablespoon celery seed 4 one-inch cinnamon sticks Yield: About 4 or 5 pint jars. Please read Using Boiling Water Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning. Procedure: Wash and rinse pint canning jars; keep hot until ready to use. Prepare lids according to manufacturer's directions. Wash cucumbers. Slice 1/16th-inch off the blossom ends and discard. Slice cucumbers into �-inch thick slices. Pour boiling water over the cucumber slices and let stand 5 to 10 minutes. Drain off the hot water and pour cold water over the cucumbers. Let cold water run continuously over the cucumber slices, or change water frequently until cucumbers are cooled. Drain slices well. Mix vinegar, 1 cup water, Splenda� and all spices in a 10-quart Dutch oven or stockpot. Bring to a boil. Add drained cucumber slices carefully to the boiling liquid. Return to a boil. Place one cinnamon stick in each jar, if desired. With a slotted spoon, fill hot pickle slices into clean, hot pint jars, leaving �-inch headspace. Cover with boiling hot pickling brine, leaving �-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Bread-and-Butter Pickles 6 lbs of 4- to 5-inch pickling cucumbers 8 cups thinly sliced onions (about 3 pounds) 1/2 cup canning or pickling salt 4 cups vinegar (5 percent) 4-1/2 cups sugar 2 tbsp mustard seed 1-1/2 tbsp celery seed 1 tbsp ground turmeric 1 cup pickling lime (optional- for use in variation below for making firmer pickles) Yield: About 8 pints Please read Using Boiling Water Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning. Procedure: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch off blossom end and discard. Cut into 3/16-inch slices. Combine cucumbers and onions in a large bowl. Add salt. Cover with 2 inches crushed or cubed ice. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours, adding more ice as needed. Combine remaining ingredients in a large pot. Boil 10 minutes. Drain and add cucumbers and onions and slowly reheat to boiling. Fill jars with slices and cooking syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process according to the recom-mendations in for more information see Table 1 or use low-temperature pasteurization treatment. The following treatment results in a better product texture but must be carefully managed to avoid possible spoilage. Place jars in a canner filled half way with warm (120� to 140�F) water. Then, add hot water to a level 1 inch above jars. Heat the water enough to maintain 180 to 185�F water temperature for 30 minutes. Check with a candy or jelly thermometer to be certain that the water temperature is at least 180�F during the entire 30 minutes. Temperatures higher than 185�F may cause unnecessary softening of pickles. Variation for firmer pickles: Wash cucumbers. Cut 1/16-inch off blossom end and discard. Cut into 3/16-inch slices. Mix 1 cup pickling lime and 1/2 cup salt to 1 gallon water in a 2- to 3-gallon crock or enamelware container. Avoid inhaling lime dust while mixing the lime-water solution. Soak cucumber slices in lime water for 12 to 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Remove from lime solution, rinse, and resoak 1 hour in fresh cold water. Repeat the rinsing and soaking steps two more times. Handle carefully, as slices will be brittle. Drain well. Storage: After processing and cooling, jars should be stored 4 to 5 weeks to develop ideal flavor. Variation: Squash bread-and-butter pickles. Substitute slender (1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter) zucchini or yellow summer squash for cucumbers. Table 1. Recommended process time for Bread-and-Butter Pickles in a boiling-water canner. Process Time at Altitudes of Style of Pack Jar Size 0 - 1,000 ft 1,001 - 6,000 ft Above 6,000 ft Hot Pints or Quarts 10 min 15 20

Some good advice here already. I only have to add 'Persevere'. Honestly, it really doesn't take long to get used to what you call 'blandness'. It took me about a week, and now I add salt to nothing at all. If salt is added, I really, really notice it! That blandness isn't bland at all - it's just not salty any more! Up until now, the only thing you've really tasted is the salt - your taste-buds are attuned to salt, and not much else. Give it time, and soon you'll be getting the REAL taste of food! Meantime, keep well away from processed and packaged foods, frozen meals, take-aways etc. Even make your own bread. I can't comment from my own experience, but I do know from people who have travelled to America find the bread 'over there' is incredibly salty compared with what we get over here - make your own instead, using an absolute minimum of salt, or none at all. Use unsalted butter. Keep away from soft-drinks (carbonated colas and such - they have a lot of salt in them). Start using more herbs. Fresh is best, but dried is better than nothing. Here's a couple of salt-substitute herb mixtures you could try. You don't need to follow the recipes exactly if you don't have all the ingredients: Herbal Salt Substitute (1) 1/4 cup dried parsley 1/4 cup dried savory 1/4 cup dried savory 1/4 cup dried thyme 2 tablespoons dried marjoram Grind all ingredients together. Herbal Salt Substitute (2) 3 tablespoons dried basil 3 tablespoons dried marjoram 3 tablespoons dried parsley 3 tablespoons dried thyme 4 1/2 teaspoons dried chives 2 1/2 teaspoons dried paprika 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary 2 1/2 teaspoons onion powder Grind all ingredients together. Meantime, check out this site:

Barb, here is Alton Brown's recipe, you could easily leave out the salt and any of the flavorings you don't like. The brown sugar adds a nice flavor, but it'll make the sausage stick if your meat is too lean, so watch it carefully. I often use dried herbs, although the fresh are very good used like this the dried ones are good too. If you don't want to grind your own meat, just get ground pork or ground chicken and use that. I like it with chicken a lot. Breakfast Sausage Alton Brown 2 pounds pork butt (2 1/2 pounds with bone), diced into 1/4-inch pieces 1/2 pound fat back, diced into 1/4-inch pieces 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves 1 tablespoon light brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes Combine diced pork with all other ingredients and chill for 1 hour. Using the fine blade of a grinder, grind the pork. Form into 1-inch rounds. Refrigerate and use within 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months. For immediate use, saute patties over medium-low heat in a non-stick pan. Saute until brown and cooked through, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Recipe courtesy Alton Brown Ruthanna that's a great idea with flavored butters, CC could use unsalted butter and add things her husband likes. I love your Tomato Basil Butter, that's good on a lot of things. Annie

Linda asked, "Why is home milled wheat sweet?". It's not the milling, it's the tannins in the bran that determine whether the grain is sweet or bitter. There are three genes that determine the bran color in wheat. Most red wheat varieties these days only have one or two of those genes, so they are not as bitter as they were a couple decades ago. The granddaddy of all hard red wheat, Turkey Red, has all three genes and is dark and somewhat bitter. White wheat varieties lack the genes that determine the bran color, leaving the taste of white wheat to be sweeter due to the lack of tannins in the bran. This is a selling point in the market for some commercial food products. It's why some brands of commercial "whole wheat bread" have a mild, sweeter, flavor than those made with red wheat varieties, as well as a very light color. Hard wheat keeps for decades without going rancid due to the bran coating the grain. Once the bran is broken (in the milling process), then the oil located in the germ of the wheat is exposed to oxygen and that's when it oxidizes and begins to go rancid. Other whole grains that are considered "soft grains", or oily grains, can go rancid while whole. In home food storage, we only keep those grains for a few years, at most. Honey in bread is also beneficial if you freeze your bread - helping to keep it moist; and it also aids in preventing mold growth if you aren't going to freeze it. -Grainlady