Pickling salt is a salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

 that is used mainly for canning and manufacturing pickle

Pickle

Pickling is a process of preserving food. Pickle or pickling may refer to:-Food:* Pickled cucumber* Pickled onion* Pickled herring* Indian pickle includes oil-based food preservation* Branston and similar sweet pickle relishes...

s. It is made without iodine

Iodine

Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....

 or any anticaking products added. If pickles are made with table salt, they will have dark and cloudy juice, due to the iodide

Iodide

An iodide ion is the ion I−. Compounds with iodine in formal oxidation state −1 are called iodides. This page is for the iodide ion and its salts. For information on organoiodides, see organohalides. In everyday life, iodide is most commonly encountered as a component of iodized salt,...

 in the salt, although the flavour should be about the same. Pickling salt is very fine-grained, to speed up dissolving in water to create a brine

Brine

Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...

, so it is useful for solutions needing salt.

Other uses

Pickling salt can be used for things other than pickling. It can be used in place of table salt, although it can cake. A solution to this would be to add a few grains of rice to the salt, or to bake it (draws the moisture out), and then break it apart. Pickling salt sticks well to food, so it can be used in place of popcorn salt, which also has fine grains.