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Pickling Salt vs. Sea Salt: Grain, Additives and Which to Use in the Jar

By · Reviewed · 16 sources

Pickling salt vs. sea salt

Can the sea salt in your cupboard go into a jar of pickles? Often, yes. Pickling salt and sea salt are the same stuff, sodium chloride, and in America’s Test Kitchen’s testing, sea salt tastes no different from table salt once it’s mixed into food.1 For a canner, the difference is grain. “Sea salt” covers everything from a fine grain that measures like pickling salt to flakes whose density varies, and home-canning guidance doesn’t recommend those.2

Side by side

Pickling saltSea salt
What it isSalt sold for canning and pickling; Morton says its version makes a clear brine3The salt left behind when seawater evaporates
GrainSame crystal size as table salt4Anything from fine grains to coarse crystals and flakes
AdditivesSold for clear brines; check the label, since Morton’s product page lists no ingredientsUsually none; Morton’s fine sea salt lists only sea salt5
IodineNot stated on Morton’s product pageNot usually iodized; noniodized sea salt provides virtually no iodine6
Volume vs. table salt (Morton chart)1 teaspoon = 1 teaspoon table salt7Morton fine or coarse sea salt: 1 teaspoon = 1 teaspoon table salt7
Weight per ¼ teaspoon (Morton labels)No nutrition panel on Morton’s pageFine and coarse sea salt: 1.4 g each58
SodiumAbout 40%, like other salts938.9% to 40.7% in seven sea salts measured in Switzerland10
Canning guidanceRecommended by the National Center for Home Food Preservation2Can share kosher salt’s crystal-size problem (OSU); flake salt not recommended (NCHFP)42
Main jobBrines, plus everyday cooking and bakingFinishing, where crunch shows; fine sea salt for cooking

The label rows compare Morton’s own products. They’re rounded serving sizes, not lab weighings.

Grain and measuring

In a pickle recipe, the trouble with sea salt isn’t what it is but how it fills a spoon. Oklahoma State University Extension warns that sea salt can have the same crystal-size problem as kosher salt: bigger grains put less salt in a measuring spoon than a recipe written for fine pickling salt expects.4 As the AHA puts it, coarse salts have less sodium per teaspoon only because fewer crystals fit.9

How big a problem that is depends on the sea salt. Morton’s chart treats a teaspoon of its fine sea salt and a teaspoon of its coarse sea salt as equal to a teaspoon of its table salt, and a teaspoon of table salt as equal to a teaspoon of its canning and pickling salt. The chart covers swaps between Morton products only.7 Its labels agree: 1.4 g per ¼ teaspoon for both its fine and coarse sea salts.58 Flaky sea salts are the other extreme. NCHFP doesn’t recommend flake salt for pickling because its density varies,2 and we found no published weight per teaspoon for any flaky salt.

Additives and iodine

NCHFP recommends canning or pickling salt because anticaking agents in other salts can cloud a brine or leave a white sediment, and because iodized salt is one cause of darkened pickles.1112 You can still make pickles safely with either iodized or noniodized table salt.2

Plenty of sea salts sidestep both issues. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements lists sea salt among specialty salts that aren’t usually iodized,6 and Morton’s fine sea salt lists sea salt as its only ingredient.5 So a fine, additive-free sea salt makes a workable pickling salt. Check the label anyway, since we didn’t survey sea salt brands for additives.

Minerals and flavor

Sea salt may carry trace levels of minerals like magnesium, potassium and calcium.9 Measured, they’re small. In a 2016 survey by Switzerland’s food safety office, six of seven sea salts bought at retail or online had potassium below 0.05 g per kg, and their sodium ran 38.9% to 40.7%. The same report concluded that specialty salts have no advantages over standard salts.10 ATK found that sea salts vary in color but only slightly in flavor, and taste no different from table salt once mixed into food.1

You’ll often read that fine pickling salt tastes “saltier” than sea salt. Per spoonful, a fine salt can hold more salt than a coarse one. Weight for weight, no test we found shows any difference in saltiness.

Why the amount matters

In sauerkraut and brined or fermented pickles, salt favors desirable bacteria while holding back others, and NCHFP warns against making them with less salt than the recipe requires.11 The University of Kentucky’s extension guide says the salt in these products is necessary for safety, while the salt in quick vinegar pickles can be safely cut.13 So an under-measured coarse sea salt is a safety question in a crock of sauerkraut and a flavor question in a jar of refrigerator pickles.

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes, matched to the grain. These match our pickling salt substitute and sea salt substitute pages.

SwapStarting amountTreatment
Fine sea salt for pickling salt, any pickle1 teaspoon per teaspoon, if the label lists only saltAttributed (Morton products only)
Coarse sea salt for pickling salt, fermented or brined picklesWeigh the recipe’s amount of pickling or table salt and match itComputed
Flaky sea salt for pickling saltNot recommended for picklingn/a
Pickling salt for fine sea salt in cooking1 teaspoon per teaspoonAttributed (Morton products only)
Pickling salt for flaky sea salt as a finishing saltNot a good fit; use by the pinch, sparinglyMethod

How these were worked out. By volume, Morton’s chart treats its canning and pickling salt, table salt and fine and coarse sea salts as equal teaspoon for teaspoon.7 By weight: OSU suggests weighing the recipe’s amount of table salt, which has the same crystal size as pickling salt, and matching it.4 The Codex standard requires food-grade salt from any source to be at least 97% sodium chloride on a dry basis.14 Fine salt in place of flakes comes down to feel. It disappears into food instead of sitting on top, and it’s easy to overdo by the pinch.

Which to use when

  • Pickling salt: tested canning and pickling recipes, as NCHFP recommends,2 and everyday cooking. Morton lists cooking, baking, marinating and brining.3
  • Sea salt: finishing, where ATK recommends it and you can see and feel the crunch,1 and fine sea salt for everyday cooking. In pickles, use a fine, additive-free sea salt, or weigh a coarser one.

Health notes

  • Sodium. Table salt, kosher salt and most sea salts are about 40% sodium.9 The FDA’s Daily Value for sodium is less than 2,300 mg a day.15
  • Iodine. Neither is a reliable source. Noniodized sea salt provides virtually no iodine.6 See iodized vs. non-iodized salt.
  • Microplastics. In a 2018 study of 39 salt brands, reported in a Greenpeace press release, microplastic contamination was highest in sea salt, then lake salt, then rock salt.16 That’s one study of specific products.

What isn’t known

  • There’s no published grams-per-teaspoon figure for canning and pickling salt, or for any flaky sea salt.
  • We didn’t find anyone who’s surveyed additives across sea salt brands.
  • We didn’t find anyone who’s tested whether sea salt’s trace minerals affect pickle color, texture or flavor.
  • We found no timed comparison of how fast either one dissolves in brine.

Footnotes

  1. Salt Types and Measurements, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. 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

  3. Morton Canning and Pickling Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2

  4. Canning and Pickling Salt, Oklahoma State University Extension, 2026. extension.okstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Morton Fine Sea Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Iodine: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals, NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. ods.od.nih.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. Salt Conversion Chart, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Morton Coarse Sea Salt, product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩ ↩2

  9. Sodium Sources: Where Does All That Sodium Come From?, American Heart Association, 2025. heart.org · Reference work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  10. Esther Infanger and Max Haldimann, Report on the composition of prevalent salt varieties, Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, 2016. warwick.ac.uk · Regulator ↩ ↩2

  11. General Information on Pickling, National Center for Home Food Preservation, reviewed 2018. nchfp.uga.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩2

  12. Causes and Possible Solutions for Problems with Pickled Foods, National Center for Home Food Preservation. nchfp.uga.edu · Reference work ↩

  13. 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 ↩

  14. Standard for Food Grade Salt, CXS 150-1985 (rev. 2012), Codex Alimentarius. services.bis.gov.in · Standard ↩

  15. Sodium in Your Diet, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov · Regulator ↩

  16. Over 90% of sampled salt brands globally found to contain microplastics, Greenpeace International press release, 2018, on Kim J-S et al., Environmental Science & Technology, 2018. greenpeace.org · Publication ↩