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Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. Any person who regularly gets up to the stove at some point in his life feels an unpleasant chill on his back, having tasted a freshly prepared dish: well, everything, too much salt, how to fix it ?! The folk wisdom “if you have too much salt, then you fell in love” encourages, but only in part: what kind of love, you have to save dinner here! Fortunately, you can save him: salted soup or meat is not a sentence (unless, of course, you accidentally poured half a packet of salt into it). Here are 5 solutions to fix over-salted food.
Starch
Let’s start with the method that almost everyone knows about. If you’ve oversalted soup or any other liquid dish, from simple stews to curry vegetables, simply add the peeled and cut potatoes to it. During cooking, the potatoes will absorb some of the salt, and then you can remove it. No worse than potatoes, other products that contain starch work – pasta, rice, cereals and so on, and they can be put in an impromptu bag of gauze, so that they can then be easily pulled out (and, for example, used for a side dish). However, you should not completely rely on this method – if you have too salted the soup, you can only partially fix it.
Acid
You can fix over-salted foods by adding a little acid, be it lemon juice, wine vinegar, or other acidic foods. Of course, the salt isn’t going anywhere, but the acid will help mask it, adding another dimension of flavor to your dish. The most obvious example is salted fish, which can be refined by squeezing a little lemon on it. Of course, in the case of salted or smoked fish, this idea lies on the surface, but lemon juice will just as well cope with over-salting fried or baked fish. In addition to fish, with the help of acid, you can save baked or stewed vegetables, as well as some meat dishes.
Add something sour
A salted dish of meat, fish, as well as too salty sauce will help save the addition of an acidic product – citric acid, vinegar or mustard. However, be careful – add acid drop by drop so as not to spoil the dish already spoiled with salt.
Fat
But not everyone. Something that has a creamy flavor, like cream, sour cream (which also tastes sour), curd cheese, or an avocado, can fix the problem of over-salted food. This component not only blocks the perception of salt, but can also make the dish more interesting and tasty. For example, heavy cream will not only fix salted tomato sauce, but also make it taste more intense, and a creamy sauce for chicken or meat will surely be appreciated by everyone.
Add something fatty or creamy
Heavy cream, sour cream, coconut milk, or avocado will perfectly balance the salty taste of goulash, soup or sauce, making it softer. Depending on the dish, add a spoonful of sour cream or a slice of ripe avocado to it to taste. Salted meat or fish can be poured with sour cream sauce, brought to a boil and stewed a little.
Water
The most obvious salt fighter, water can help us in two ways. Firstly, salted foods can be soaked in water, be it jerky, sauerkraut, boiled chicken or boiled vegetables. Secondly, water can be added to the soup, which is so salty that even a potato cannot save it. However, it is worth resorting to the help of water only in extreme cases, if other methods have not justified themselves: although water, indeed, will quite effectively correct the salted soup, the taste of this soup will leave much to be desired.
Dilute the dish with water
You can save a salted dish by adding clean water to it. Pour into the dish first 2-4 tbsp. water, bring to a boil and taste. Add more water if needed, bring to a boil and try again. This method is suitable for improving the taste of sauces and gravies for second courses. But salted soup should not be saved in this way – it will become cloudy from water and lose its taste.
Rinse with water
Salted vegetables, cereals, pasta can be washed under running water or refilled with water, brought to a boil and let stand for a couple of minutes until the water absorbs excess salt from the food.
Add sweets
Sugar, honey, and sweet vegetables such as carrots can help remove excess salt in sauces or soups. Like sour foods, sweet foods should also be added in small amounts.
Add absorbent product
Some products have useful absorbent properties, ie. capable of absorbing excess salt. Such products include potatoes, starchy cereals, pasta, fresh herbs. So, in salted soup, you can put a few chopped potatoes or pour 100-150 g of rice – these ingredients will absorb excess salt. If you don’t want to spoil the dish with excess products, you can put the whole potato so that it is easy to get it later, and place the cereals in the soup in a cloth bag.
Dilute the dish with vegetables or cereals
Grated raw potatoes, onions, zucchini, carrots or boiled rice can be added to salted minced meat. You can add raw vegetables to meat or fish dishes and stew – you get both the main course and the vegetable side dish.
Recycle salted foods
So, from salted meat or fish, you can prepare a delicious hearty pie filling by adding additional ingredients (vegetables, cereals). Over-salted vegetables can be processed into puree by adding puree from vegetables boiled without salt.
Top with bland or “sparkling” garnish
If you oversalted the main course and it can no longer be corrected, serve this dish with a simple side dish – cereal porridge, unsalted mashed potatoes or stewed vegetables without salt. Everything together will turn out to be more harmonious in taste. If there is no time to prepare a side dish, serve sparkling wine or champagne with a salted dish – the bubbles contained in it will neutralize the excess salinity right on the tongue, and a couple of glasses will completely allow you to forget about the failed dish.
Common sense
My favorite ingredient in all recipes: use common sense and the results will surprise you. Here are some mindful tips on how to avoid over-salting or fix already salted food:
Correct the recipe… Some foods, like cheese, capers, bacon, soy sauce, and so on, already contain enough salt, so if you’re preparing a dish that includes them, double your guard. You may need less salt than usual, or you may not need it at all.
Do not use iodized salt… Generally, iodized salt is good for you and all that, but if you notice that you have begun to taste salt in your dishes, it may be that you switched to iodized salt: sometimes we mistake the taste of iodine for the taste of salt.
Cook twice as much… The only way that is guaranteed to fix oversalted food is to cook the same amount, but not salt, and then stir in the oversalted portion. Alas, this failsafe method is not suitable for everyone and not always.
And the most important thing – salt food while cooking, and not on a plate, and constantly try: in this case, less salt will go away, and the taste of the finished dish will be richer. Salt is essential for our body, but like everything else, it is good in moderation. Good luck with your over-salted food!