Last Updated on March 21, 2016
I’m sure it’s happened to you – you forgot to taste one more time and added more salt anyway and then realized that suddenly your stew/soup/sauce was so salty it was inedible.
salt, the culprit
For years I thought the answer was to add one of these three starchy foods:
pasta, potatoes, rice -- to the rescue?
That was the solution I suggested on my live call in show, “Cooking Live,” on the food network.
Then one day, a few years ago I was reading a new book I had picked up about food science:
"What Einstein Told His Cook"
and realized I was completely wrong. Robert L. Wolke, the author of the book and professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh conducted an experiment with potato slices cooked in various degrees of salted water and discovered this:
“…the potato simmered in plain water was bland, the potato simmered in the one-teaspoon-per-quart water was salty, and the potato simmered in the one- tablespoon-per-quart water was much saltier. Does this mean that the potato actually absorbed salt from the “soups?”
No, All it means is that the potatoes soaked up some salt water, they didn’t selectively extract the salt from the water. Would you be surprised if a sponge placed in salt water came out tasting salty? Of course not. The concentration of salt in the water – the amount of salt per quart – would not be affected. So the salty taste of the potatoes proved nothing, except that for more flavor we should always boil our potatoes – and our pasta, for that matter – in salted water rather than plain water. “
Of course I didn’t believe him. I went into my kitchen at Gourmet and did the experiment myself with potatoes, pasta and rice and found out that he was completely right.
So what is the solution for saving a salty dish?
Add more water.
What you say makes, sense, but, to remove the salt, should you not then drain the water (once the salt level in the dish has stabilized)? That is, adding water does nothing to the overall saltiness of the dish if you then allow the water to evaporate in cooking. You have to pull it, and the salt it contains, out before you have a less salty dish.
But then I am a tax lawyer not a chef (though I play one at home).
The best solution if its a soup dish, not a stew dish, is to just throw it out and make sure the next time be careful about salt.
That’s not a solution, it’s a kop-out, 🙁 I’ve some yummy soup, someone made for me; the broth is a bit too salty, but the meat and veggies are delicious. Why through out the goodies?!
Gayle,
what is your solution?
I admit I used the potato technique just now. It did not work, well, not really. I ended up using 4 large ones, noted that they tasted just as salty as my still salty broth, and hung my head. But then I noticed the broth level dropped, so I added more water. Not enough to dilute the salty, but it gave me an idea! I made the same soup again, purposefully under-seasoning, then combined salt soup with bland soup. I then added a dash of this and that for balance but never more salt. Not really a great solution, but it was better than wasting potatoes on a myth.
Smart idea, although a bit of work. I hate wasting food!
Wouldn’t adding more water just dilute the flavors of the rest of the dish? just wondering?
I had a student put a 1 tbsp. of salt in a pot of French Onion Soup instead of a 1 tsp. we really could not dilute that by adding more water, it just diluted the rest of the flavors.
I heard that if you have over salted soups or sauces to add cream to a salty dish it would help.
thanks for the tips.
yes, cream will help because you are adding more unsalted liquid to the sauce. Water does dilute the flavors so if you can add other non salted flavorful liquids like unsalted stock or tomatoes, that will help to minimize the salt content while adding some flavor.
If I add more water to my sauce to reduce the saltiness, I’m afraid then that the sauce will be too watery. Is this
really a good solution?
You can always thicken it with a slurry – a mixture of flour, cornstarch, or arrowroot with water. But the sauce will lose some flavor by adding the extra water, there is nothing else you can do to get rid of that salty taste, alas.
I did this once… I oversalted some beef stew I was making. I was at the beef browning stage with only onions, garlic, salt and pepper… too much salt… so I added two quarts of water and “rinsed the meat” pouring the liquid through a sieve. I added the meat back to the pot, then I added some of the strained liquid back to the stew and some plain water. It worked great. I saved the rest of the salty broth and used it to cook rice.
I just got a xl pressure cooker and tried to make a pot roast. It did not turn out quite right; so I
cut it up and added some beef stock. Now it is too salty. Is there someway to still save this
expensive cut of meat??? Rinse it off with water, add tomatoes, or what?
help.
thanks.
carol
The meat is salty or the sauce is salty? if the meat is salty there is not much you can do. If the sauce is salty add some unsalted chicken broth.
I fried fish….very salty . Any resolutions?
This is a difficult problem because it does not involve liquid. If the sauce was too salty you could just add water, but if the fish is too salty there is no way to dilute the saltiness. You can disguise it a bit with a squeeze of lemon or perhaps some sour cream.
I defrosted a package of frozen artichokes and marinated them in olive oil with salt and pepper. I grilled them in a grill basket and took them off the grill. As I went to salt them the shaker was open and they were covered with salt. Can I recover this?
I think you would have to rinse them off, pat them dry and dress them again.
I made home made mashed potatoes and added to much salt what do I do
I suggest that you add more milk or water to dilute the salinity.
I made a 5 qt. pot of chicken wings and rice, used Kosher salt, forgot use sparingly. Is there a way to save this dish?
Alas, the only way to save it is to add more water. Or make another batch with no salt and combine the two. Bummer!
I made Ina Garten’s tomato soup. I forgot and added a second table spoon of salt. Solution – I added a can of garlic-basil diced tomatoes pureed with a little more cream and chicken broth. Perfect. The flavor was actually improved with the garlic-basil flavored diced tomatoes added. I plan to incorporate a can when I do the recipe again.
smart idea Lyle. It goes to show that you can fix almost anything.
Without removing some of the liquid (and some of the flavor) replacing liquid with some other non salty liquid (diluting the salt ) there is no other way. HOWEVER, I have found a way to DISGUISE the saltiness and that is by adding strong red wine like Cabernet or Burgundy being careful not to add too much to completely change the flavor. Also chip dip or sour cream does well. Ya never know you may like it better!
So glad I found your article. I was making homemade bean soup, and added too much salt. After reading your article, I simply disposed of some of the liquid in it, added water and then also added back in some of the herbs and flavorings. Once it reboiled and I simmered it, the flavor and consistency was right back to the original. Thanks again.
Never use a salt shaker over your food. Shake some salt into yr hand over the sink or a dish so if the top falls off you are saved. To desalt my drowned-in-salt vegetable stew I added rice, more water, more fresh veggies, a cut up sweet apple, 2 teaspoons of sugar (one at a time to taste if it worked), and the juice and entire insides of 2 oranges (minus seeds) When I turned off the burner I added 2 dollops of plain yogurt and the contents of another orange. Not bad and no longer over salted. Then I went to the internet to see how to desalt food. I found I did rather well on my own. But why not use the internet first – less panic. Don’t forget – NEVER shake the contents of any spice container directly into your food. Good Luck!
I made a great pot of beef “taco” soup but forgot I was going to add the taco seasoning and salted the beef. If not for oversalting it was probably the best soup I’ve made in the last year at least. Made with stewing beef. I was sooo disappointed but ate some anyways. I think I’ll try adding some red wine to what’s left over tomorrow and see if that helps disguise it like someone suggested.
I made beef ribs with rice they are salty how do I fix it ?
I am so sorry, what a bummer, the only way to correct it is to add unsalted liquid, like unsalted broth or water.
I just made Beef Bourgignon and it’s slightly salty…would adding a small amt of juice from a lemon help counter salty taste without altering flavor too much?
yes, but it will mask it more than anything else. If you could add some more unsalted liquid, say unsalted beef or chicken broth that would be the best solution – if that makes the sauce too runny, make a slurry, a loose paste of flour and water and whisk it into the simmering sauce. , simmer for a few minutes and the sauce should be good to go.
I have found that i can reduce the saltiness in stews/chilies when oversalted by adding apple cider vinegar. This will sweeten it up a little and make the salt less apparent in the sweet/salt flavor profile
Nice idea Luke. The cider vinegar, since it is unsalted, will also help to dilute the salt content of the whole dish.
One night for supper I was cooking squash casserole and boiling eggs for deviled eggs. When I did a taste test on the boiled squash it was awful. It had so much salt in it that I figured I would have to throw it out. I ran across your discussion and thought I would try an save the casserole after all.
At first I tried just adding milk but that didn’t help. I then tried rinsing the mashed up squash with water. After rinsing three times I was able to get the salt so you no longer taste it. I added onions and cheese to it. It came out great.
As to how it ended up getting to salty–well I had two pots on the stove with water. One for the squash and one for the eggs. In the water for the eggs I put in a lot of salt so the eggs would peel perfectly. Moral of this story–always check you water before adding ingredients. : )
Sad story Sherry but with a happy ending. Good for you for hanging in there.
hi, what about adding sugar to counter the salty taste? would that work?
It would just mask the saltiness slightly – I don’t think it is the best solution.
I made corned beef hash, and when I test tasted it it was way too salty. My recipe calls for chopped roast beef, potatoes, onions, left-over gravy and milk. It’s easy and tastes great…usually.
Corned beef is already salty, and I added another teaspoon. To get rid of the salt I added 1/2 ‘n 1/2 (about 3/4 cup) and a chopped tomato. No more salty taste.
Add-a-potato fans usually recommend 15-30 minutes extra cooking with a quartered potato. As we now know, this doesn’t really work, so I use that time to simmer a minced onion (and garlic if it goes well with the flavour of the original dish), bay leaf and celery top in about a pint of water, then strain it into the sauce or soup to taste. If more body will be needed, I add that quartered potato to this new, unsalted mix before cooking.
Jan,
Brilliant solution! thank you.
How do you lessen the salty taste of sauerkraut and smoked sausage in a crock pot?
I assume there is liquid in there? Just make sure the liquid (chicken broth, water, etc) is unsalted. It is very hard to use such salty ingredients and not have the end result come out salty.
I made a four-quart pot of black-eyed peas for our family gathering on New Year’s Day (honoring the southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck in the New Year). I had cooked the beans with bacon and ham, but they needed a little salt anyway. Unfortunately, I added too much!
So here’s what I did: I added about two thirds of a one-quart bottle of Low-Sodium V-8 juice, a couple cups of water, and some dried celery flakes and dried minced onion to absorb some of the excess liquid. (I also seasoned with bay leaves and black pepper). It was still too salty for my taste, so (not having seen this site yet), I peeled and quartered three medium-size potatoes, dropped them in and let the whole thing cook for about an hour. In my opinion, the potatoes did indeed help reduce the saltiness. The soup turned out fabulous. I forgot to take the potatoes out before people started serving themselves, but it turned out that the potatoes were tender by then, and people really liked the potatoes with the beans! I intend to make it that way from now on. I have made black-eyed peas every New Year’s Day for many years, and have experimented with many different ingredients. This batch was one of the best ever!
I made a pot of pork stew using Las Palmas Green enchilada sauce, which I have done for years but I forgot that my wife cannot have ANY salt, and used kosher salt now my pot is too salty! Do I have to toss the 5lbs. of meat or can I salvage the great tasting pot? Help Please! Rick G.
Rick, you might be able to salvage just the meat if you discarded the liquid and added unsalted enchilada sauce. Taste a piece of meat by itself to see how salty it is first.
I just wanted to say that if you over-salt deviled eggs a trick I learned is to take 1/4 cup of white vingear and mix in about 1-2 tsp of sugar until it’s dissolved, add that to your egg yolk mixture a spoonful at a time and mix it all really well. Taste test to find out if you need to add more. It works perfectly and no one will ever know otherwise.
Depending on the type of sauce, soup, or stew…I have saved many using potato flakes! Love them, or hate them, they can save the day! They are a great thickener also!