Sorry, most brines for pickling are using salt and/or vinegar. About all you can do is to empty out the brine of an open jar and add water to dilute the salt a little. Because the vegetables absorb it and don't release as easily, it might take some time, like 5 days and two water changes to reduce the salt a little. Once done, there is a higher risk of spoilage and it should be refrigerated. I guess your not into fermented pickles either. If you can't take the salt, you can only can stuff your way, and keep it seperate. Just be sure that any recipe you use, that has no salt MUST have some other means of preserving, like using vinegar or another acid, or is pressure canned. Attempting to make a saltess cucumber pickle is hard to do, but if its only in vinegar, it will be a bit bland. I would also avoid that potassium chloride as its horrible tasting stuff.

Thanks for the response. The only pickles that I made that I was able to eat was the Bread and Butter pickes. The dill and the okra was just too salty. I was hoping maybe I could just cut the salt some but I suppose not. And I forgot to mention, yes, I used pickling salt. Again, thanks alot. I will try to search for recipes with less salt or something.
Kim

The B&B pickles usually have almost the same amount of salt as a dill. The reason you don't notice salt is because B&B are much sweeter and have a few more flavors to help them. You can also try the dill pickle packages that Ball offers. Some of them have sugar added, but if your doing it from scratch, suiggest that you cut back on the salt to 1/3 and then add some sugar. Be sure to taste and see how it is. Obvbiously vinegar is also necessary and the use of some cider vinegar will help improve the mellow taste. B&B are one of my favorits as are sweet mixed with cauliflower and some sweet red pepper pieces, with whole small onions and pickling cuke chunks. The last few years I made some pickled pepperoncini and they used just salt and vinegar full strength. Everyone thought I added sugar, but because the salt and vinegar were in perfect balance, you wouldn't know that it was just salt. These pepper types canot be home canned in a BWB. I use a vacuum system instead and becuase the vinegar is full strength, they are quite safe. If I were to try a BWB on them, it would make green mush within a few minutes of any heat applied. They are the type you see as mildly hot and are in salad bars.

Kim,
You do NOT have to add salt in those quick pack pickle recipes. You only have to use it if you are fermenting. The salt is just for flavor, not to preserve it in that small amount. So, relax, and cut out the salt if you want. Some salt will make it taste better.
I think Ken meant Calcium Chloride. I like it for the crispness it adds to the pickles. The commercial pickles contain it.

No, the calcium chloride I know as the Ball Pickle Crisp alternative. Potassium chloride is given to some people that must limit regular salt intake. I had to drink that awful brownish liquid back in August as my potassium level was way way down. It was terrible and was almost to the point of gagging. Luckily, I was only given one dose of it. Normal pickles do call for salt and I suppose it can be lowered in the amounts. For fermented things, however, the salt amoiunt is very important. Too much and its horrible, too little and the fermenting will end in spoilage.

I have a suggestion for future canning for you Kim.

I looked up the Ball Pickled Okra recipe and that recipe has no sugar and the dill has almost as much salt as sugar.
I used the Ball recipe for a few dills this year and am not over impressed with that recipe, in fact when I open a jar I drain out the juice, boil it adding more dill, pour over the pickles and refrigerate overnight.

When looking at recipes, look for those that have a higher sugar ratio to the salt. Alternatively, look for recipes that say Sweet.
I had extra brine from my pickled cauliflower, that recipe has sugar in it, used the leftover brine for 2 pints of summer squash,the squash was awesome, ate an entire pint myself.

Is potassium chloride approved for canning? I thought not

Potassium chloride would not be suitable for canning!! Its got a horrible aftertaste and even for restricted salt diets, can drastically raise the potassium level in people to a point where it can become dangerous for some people. I have to take a medication called sodium polystyrene sulfonate to absorb excess potassium in my system. Letting it get too high can cause your heart to stop. I only mentioned it as an avoidance, if a person didn't like salt in their diet, they should not even use the potassium chloride. Sugar, does mask the salt in pickles however, and might be a way to salvage the okra and any other pickles you are not happy with. I always say that even if you follow a recipe exactly to the letter, you need to TASTE the product, brine, or what have you, before you commit it to home canning. Too many times I have read so many dissappointments about something thats home canned, after following recipes to the exact letter, but these canned things are tasting terrible or not setting up, or have weak or too strong a taste. Most of these issues can be avoided my just a simple sample tasting of the liquid before its put into jars. Rarely do I ever have a pickle problem even if I don't follow ANY recipe. In most cases, any home canning I do, has been done so many times in the past, that its second nature for me to get the right taste combination without any surprises, simply by tasting the mixture. This past summer I made 3 half gallon jars of half sour pickles. Because I had some medical problems, I was not even able to taste the brines and get a good flavor result. I decided to simply weigh the salt and add it to the water, then hoped that with all the cukes, fresh dill seed, weed, and garlic, I would have a decent pickle. Recently, I opened one of the refrigerated jars and found it to be acceptable, but it was a little bit salty, which was easy to correct. Each half gallon will be a surprise for me, as I had no way of really knowing if the salt was enough or too much. I still use a taste method for my brine, and was taught that by my Polish grandmother many years ago. I had to put aside that tasting, because everything I ate was bitter, no matter what it was. Finally after 2 months, my sense of taste has returned a little.

Reduced salt recipes for pickles.

Here is a link that might be useful: Low salt pickles.

Thanks all of you for the advice. Since it was my first canning experience I followed the recipes to a T, assuming that everything was written in stone and had to be done with those exact measurements. I am now willing to take a risk and cut back the salt a little to get it more to my taste and see how it goes.
Will let ya know, lol
Kim

Good for you on safety Kim. What Linda Lou is saying is that for a quick pack recipe, the salt is not part of the safety. You can reduce the salt in most any recipe, except a fermented (kept at room temperature before canning) pickle. No risk. :-) Except maybe a risk that you still won't like it, or something.

It's probably not worth the risk of reducing the salt in a recipe where it IS required for safety. Mostly because those recipes have so much salt, you would have to reduce it so much it would be totally unsafe.

Happy canning!

Melissa