Absolutely, Ben. To quote from the Ball Blue Book: "Canned meats and vegetables keep just as well without salt as with it. The amount called for in those recipes is too small to help prevent spoilge; it is there only for seasoning purposes." I would add one proviso. We're talking about salt added to a brine or directly into the jars. Some pickles get salted ahead of time to draw moisture out of them, and make them crisper. Do not omit that step for those types.

It's interesting that the salt you use for pickling/canning isn't fine ground. I always assumed when I saw a recipe that called for salt by a measurement of volume that one needed to use the same salt as the recipe called for in terms of grain size. The weight of a tablespoon of coarse salt will be less than a tablespoon of fine ground salt. If a recipe calls for coarse ground salt and fine ground is used I would think that in many cases the result would be excessively salty. In your case I would think the opposite would hold true. If you used a recipe assuming canning/pickling salt and used a salt with a coarse grain you may end up with not enough salt for the application. Is this a normal difference between the US and Canadian markets (the coarseness of pickling/canning salt)?

lette_04- I've been through several brands of salt grinders over the years. My first grinder I bought from King Arthur Flour Company was an Emsa, but it had a small chamber and was difficult to change the grind. I now use it to grind whole nigella seeds (a nice change-of-pace taste to black pepper). We had a set of small and large G'Rabbit grinders (has ears that look like a rabbit and they were almost a kitchen "pet"). Very easy to use with one hand, but we managed to break the ears on one of the small ones, and both sizes were messy. Fast forward several years.... I have a pair of OXO salt and pepper grinders I really like, and OXO has several different styles available. The ones I have are at the Amazon link below. I purchased mine at K-Mart, on sale, for about half the Amazon price. You can easily change the coarseness of the grind with your thumb (5 choices of grind). They are easy to use if you have a small hand (with a nice soft grip), they don't take up much cabinet space and are easy to refill. Because they store with the grinder up, you don't have a mess where ever you store them. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: OXO Salt Grinder

Sure. You are looking in the wrong places. Here is one. See http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/quick_dill_pickles.html The salt called for in pickling recipes like the one linked above has 2 different roles. Most of it is used as a pre-soak - you soak the cucumber and peppers in the salty water for 12 hours to draw out the extra water in the cucumbers. Then you rinse them well and throw that soaking water away. The rest of the salt, usually only a small amount, is added to the vinegar and water brine for flavoring. It is optional. You can reduce it or leave it all out if you want. They stipulate pickling or canning salt because unlike table salt, canning salt has no added stabilizers or anti-clotting agents added and those things make the pickles cloudy and off-color. But for long term shelf storage you must 'can', process the jars by submerging them in a deep pot of boiling water for 15 mins to vacuum seal the jars. Otherwise if you don't can them you can only keep them in the fridge for up to 3 months. They cannot be stored out on the counter or shelf. Dave