Pickling Salt Substitute: Safe Swaps

Out of pickling salt? Plain table salt, or kosher salt matched by weight, will do the job. Pickling salt’s big advantage is what isn’t in it: the anticaking agents in many table salts can cloud a brine or leave sediment in the jar.¹² That’s only about looks, but the amount of salt is another matter. In fermented pickles and sauerkraut, salt is part of what keeps the food safe, so never end up with less than the recipe calls for.³⁴

Quick answer

What pickling salt is doing	Best substitute	Starting amount, per 1 tablespoon pickling salt	Treatment
Fermented or brined pickles, sauerkraut	Kosher salt, weighed	The same weight as 1 tablespoon of table salt	Computed
Fermented pickles, no scale	Table salt, noniodized if you have it	1 tablespoon	Attributed
Quick vinegar pickles	Kosher salt, by the spoon	1¼ tablespoons Morton or 2 tablespoons Diamond Crystal, then taste the brine	Disputed
Quick pickles	Fine sea salt with no additives	1 tablespoon	Attributed
Everyday cooking, baking, brining meat	Table salt	1 tablespoon	Attributed
Any pickle	Flake salt, or reduced-sodium salt in fermented pickles	Not recommended	n/a

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.

The swaps here go through table salt, which two sources treat as the same crystal size and volume as pickling salt.

What the salt is doing in a pickle

The National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP), whose guidance is adapted from the USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning, makes three separate points about salt:

Additives affect looks, not safety. Noncaking materials added to other salts may make the brine cloudy,³ and an anticaking agent or other additives can leave white sediment in the jar.² You can make pickles safely with either iodized or noniodized table salt,¹ though iodized salt is listed as one cause of dark or discolored pickles.²
In fermented pickles, salt is a safety ingredient. In sauerkraut and brined pickles, salt favors the growth of desirable bacteria while holding back others, and NCHFP warns against making them with less salt than the recipe calls for.³ The University of Kentucky’s extension guide says the same: in these products, the salt is necessary for safety.⁴
In quick pickles, it mostly isn’t. Fresh-pack pickles made with vinegar can be made safely with reduced salt or none, though the quality may be noticeably lower.³⁴

Too much salt is a quality problem too. NCHFP lists a too-strong brine as a cause of shriveled pickles.² A bad conversion can miss in either direction, which is why the sources below prefer weighing.

If you’re making fermented or brined pickles

These are crock dills, brined pickles and sauerkraut. Here your substitute has to deliver at least the recipe’s full amount of salt.

1. Kosher salt, matched by weight

Kosher salt grains are bigger than pickling salt grains, so a spoonful holds less salt. Oklahoma State University Extension notes that more of the finer grains fit in a tablespoon, so measuring kosher salt by the spoon means using less salt than the recipe calls for. For brined or fermented pickles, that puts quality and, more importantly, safety at risk.⁵

Ratio (Computed): OSU’s fix is to use kosher salt measured by weight.⁵ Table salt has the same crystal size as canning and pickling salt, so measure the recipe’s amount of table salt, weigh it (grams are best), then weigh out the same amount of kosher salt and use that.⁵ NCHFP likewise says to measure or weigh amounts carefully.³

Pick the brand with care. Diamond Crystal contains no anticaking agent, according to ATK.⁶ Morton’s kosher salt lists yellow prussiate of soda, an anticaking agent,⁷ the kind of additive canning guides blame for cloudy brine.

2. Table salt, if you have no scale

Ratio (Attributed): Morton’s conversion chart treats its table salt and its canning and pickling salt as equal by volume, teaspoon for teaspoon and cup for cup, for swaps between Morton products.⁸ OSU says the two have the same crystal size.⁵ So 1 tablespoon of table salt replaces 1 tablespoon of pickling salt and delivers the full amount of salt.

The cost is appearance. Table salt usually carries an anticaking agent: Morton’s iodized label lists calcium silicate.⁹ OSU doesn’t recommend table salt for canning because calcium silicate can cloud the jars in storage, and notes that iodide can discolor some foods.⁵ NCHFP confirms both kinds of table salt are safe for fermented and fresh-pack pickles.¹ If you have noniodized table salt, use that to avoid the darkening.

3. Fine sea salt, checked for additives

Morton’s fine sea salt lists only sea salt as its ingredient,¹⁰ and Morton’s chart treats it as equal to its table salt teaspoon for teaspoon.⁸ OSU warns that sea salt can have the same crystal-size problem as kosher salt.⁵ Use a fine sea salt with nothing added at the same volume, or weigh any coarser sea salt against table salt as above.

What not to use in fermented pickles

Less salt than the recipe calls for, by any route. Don’t attempt a lower-salt sauerkraut or fermented pickle.³
Reduced-sodium salt. NCHFP doesn’t recommend it in fermented pickle recipes.¹ The Kentucky guide adds that salt substitutes contain potassium chloride and may make the product taste bitter.⁴
Flake salt. Its density varies, and NCHFP doesn’t recommend it.¹
Kosher or coarse salt measured by the spoon. See above.

If you’re making quick (vinegar) pickles

Fresh-pack and refrigerator pickles are acidified with vinegar, and both NCHFP and the Kentucky guide say you can safely cut their salt, at some cost to quality.³⁴ Here a little too little salt makes a blander pickle, not an unsafe one. So converting kosher salt by the spoon is fine here, though the published conversions disagree.

Volume swaps: the sources disagree

Swap for 1 teaspoon of table salt	Morton kosher	Diamond Crystal	Source
ATK’s rule of thumb	1½ teaspoons	2 teaspoons	¹¹¹²
Morton’s conversion chart (Morton products only)	1¼ teaspoons	not covered	⁸
Computed from ATK’s own gram weights (6.0 ÷ 4.8 and 6.0 ÷ 2.8)	1¼ teaspoons	about 2⅛ teaspoons	⁶

The same ratios hold for tablespoons and cups. For Morton kosher salt, ATK’s own weights agree with Morton’s chart, not with ATK’s rule.⁶⁸

Ratio (Disputed): Pickling salt measures like table salt,⁸⁵ so use the table. Start at the lower figure: 1¼ tablespoons of Morton kosher salt, or 2 tablespoons of Diamond Crystal, per tablespoon of pickling salt. Taste the cooled brine before it goes into the jars and add more if it’s flat. Weighing, as above, takes out the guesswork. Reduced-sodium salts may be used in quick pickle recipes that call for them, though the taste may differ.¹

Fine sea salt and table salt both work here at the same volume, as above.

If you use pickling salt as everyday salt

Morton lists cooking, baking, marinating and brining among its canning and pickling salt’s uses.¹³ For any of those jobs, table salt is a one-for-one swap by volume (Attributed, Morton’s chart).⁸ Taste isn’t a worry: ATK’s tasters found no detectable difference between iodized and noniodized salt.¹¹

What isn’t known

We found no published grams-per-teaspoon figure for canning and pickling salt, so the weighing method here goes through table salt instead.
We found no test of how much Morton kosher salt’s anticaking agent clouds a pickle brine.
ATK’s rule of thumb and its own gram weights disagree for Morton kosher salt, and we didn’t find a published answer on which one is closer for pickling.

Pickling salt, pickling salt vs. kosher salt and pickling salt vs. sea salt
Kosher salt, table salt, sea salt and iodized vs. non-iodized salt
Kosher salt substitutes and sea salt substitutes
Pickling spice and pickling spice substitutes, for the aromatics in the jar
Curing salt, which is a different product for cured meats

Salts Used in Pickling, National Center for Home Food Preservation, adapted from USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. nchfp.uga.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Causes and Possible Solutions for Problems with Pickled Foods, National Center for Home Food Preservation. nchfp.uga.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
General Information on Pickling, National Center for Home Food Preservation, reviewed 2018. nchfp.uga.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Sandra Bastin and Annhall Norris, Home Canning Pickled and Fermented Foods (FCS3-582), University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, reviewed 2019. publications.ca.uky.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Canning and Pickling Salt, Oklahoma State University Extension, 2026. extension.okstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Kate Shannon Levine, The Best Kosher Salt, America’s Test Kitchen, 2019. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Morton Kosher Salt Flakes, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩
Salt Conversion Chart, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Morton Iodized Table Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩
Morton Fine Sea Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩
Salt Types and Measurements, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Eden Faithfull, The Wrong Brand of Kosher Salt Could Ruin Your Dinner, America’s Test Kitchen, 2022. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
Morton Canning and Pickling Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩

Pickling Salt Substitutes: What’s Safe for Fermented Pickles, Quick Pickles and Everyday Cooking