Nearly spherical NaCl particles prepared by a disc granulator were used to produce open-cell aluminum foams via infiltration casting. The average compressive strength of the salt balls is 3.9 MPa, and they can be completely collapsed within 5 min in the ultrasonic cleaner. By controlling the hot-pressure sintering duration as 0.5?2 h and the hot-pressing temperature at 700 °C, the preforms with bulk density of 0.66?0.83 g/cm³ can be prepared. Prolonging the duration of hot-pressure sintering can increase the pore size of the open-cell aluminum foams from 0.48 mm to 1.16 mm, and also increase the porosity from 64% to 82%. Compression test results show that the macroscopic deformation characteristics of the foams with different pore structures are basically the same, and they all exhibit the deformation characteristic of layer-by-layer collapse. In addition, the densification strain value, elastic modulus, plateau yield stress, and energy absorption capacity of open-cell aluminum foams are al decreased with increasing the porosity. The energy absorption capacity is the largest (15.0 MJ·m^-3) when the porosity is 64%.