"Kevin Farrows" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all, I'm about to pickle some home grown onions. All the recipes tell
> you to soak the onions in salted water overnight. I was wondering just
> what the purpose of the salt is - flavour? preserving?. Bearing in mind
> that there's quite alot of it involved and that its bad for blood
> pressure, I'd be quite happy to leave it out if its not strictly needed.
>
> Kevin
>

Both flavor and preserving. Salt is probably the oldest preservatove known
to man, and I don't think you would like pickles made wihtout it! Also, the
link between dietary salt and hypertension is weak or nonexistent. Except in
extreme cases, eating almost no salt or huge amounts of it, the amount of
salt in your diet has little or no effect on BP. The body is so efficient at
regulating salt that modest increases or decreases are easily compensated
for by your kidneys.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.