That’s it! I’m gonna can. I’ve watched the most excellent video by Kendra from New Life on a Homestead called At Home Canning for Beginners and Beyond (you can read my review of it here), I’ve got my chicken ready to go, and now all I need is some canning salt.

Really? Canning salt? I can’t just use kosher or that table salt I only store in case I have to de-ice the driveway during a cold winter’s day during the zombie apocalypse (and I really wouldn’t do that – I just have a lot stored just in case)?? Great. I can’t get to the store, the chicken can’t wait another minute before I’m afraid it will become zombie-fied and come to eat my brains. And the likelihood I’ll be able to find it in the middle of winter isn’t great as most places only stock it during canning season. Whatever is a prepared kitchen chick supposed to do?

That’s right world, I’ll just make my own. And it’s ridiculously easy!

Like when making popcorn, the salt you use to can or pickle needs to be finer than kosher salt. You also shouldn’t use ordinary table salt because it contains iodine (which was used as a supplement to help those regions of the country where iodine was not present in great quantities in the soil, in order to help stave off thyroid problems such as goiter) which can cloud or discolor your final product (and to clarify, iodine can discolor the food, and the anti-clumping agents and other minerals found in things like sea salt can cloud the liquids- basically, pure salt is what you need). That would be bad. very bad. Especially if you’re new at this, and you see the product you’ve just put so much work into look like THAT?! You know you’ll never eat it…and you probably won’t even try to can again. So don’t use ordinary table salt to can with. ever.

Here’s How!

I found out the coolest thing, and it really works! Canning & Pickling salt can be easily made by whirring kosher salt in a blender or spice grinder (or a handy-dandy coffee grinder used for the specific purpose of grinding every kind of seed, bean and grain that ISN’T coffee).

Honestly, it does work. I took about a cup of kosher salt and ran it through the grinder. I got it pretty fine, to make sure that it can dissolve properly in the canning process. Then I store it in a mason jar next to my boxes of kosher salt and bags of sea salt.

It was that easy. Try it. You’ll like it. You might want to keep a box of canning/pickling salt handy, but if ever you run out and those green beans are calling your name to be tossed in a jar with boiling water, but you find out you’re out of canning salt, never fear. This trick will work!