Food too salty

What to do now

In order of how well it works.

1. Add more of everything else. More liquid, more vegetables, more of the main ingredient. This is the only method that genuinely reduces the salt concentration, and it is why over-salting a big pot is more recoverable than over-salting a portion.
2. Add acid. A squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar does not remove salt, but it competes for attention and makes a dish taste markedly less salty. The single most effective quick fix.
3. Add fat. Cream, butter, yoghurt, coconut milk or oil coat the tongue and blunt the perception of salt considerably.
4. Add sweetness. A small amount of sugar, honey or a sweet vegetable balances salt. Go carefully — over-sweetened salty food is worse than salty food.
5. Add starch. Serve it with plain rice, bread, pasta or potatoes. Dilution on the plate rather than in the pot, and often the most practical answer.
6. Split the batch. Make a second unsalted batch and combine them. Tedious, and it always works.

The potato does not work

The most repeated kitchen remedy for salty soup is to drop in a raw potato and remove it later. It has been tested repeatedly and it does not do what people think.

A potato absorbs liquid, and that liquid is salty, so it removes a little salt along with a little soup — the concentration is essentially unchanged. What actually happens is that the potato absorbs some liquid and adds some starch, both of which have a small diluting effect, and then people credit the potato.

If you want the diluting effect, cook the potato in and leave it there. Adding bulk is the real mechanism, and there is no reason to throw the bulk away afterwards.

By dish

Soup or stew

Add unsalted stock or water plus more vegetables. Then acid and fat at the end.

Sauce

Dilute with cream, unsalted stock or water and re-reduce slightly.

Braise or curry

Coconut milk, yoghurt or cream, plus more of the main vegetable. Serve with plenty of rice.

Roast meat

Very hard to fix. Serve with an unsalted starch and a sharp, unsalted sauce.

Boiled vegetables

Drain and rinse in hot water. This genuinely works, because the salt is mostly on the surface.

Cured meat in a dish

Blanch the bacon or pancetta in water first next time. Now, dilute.

Avoiding it next time

• Season in layers and taste at every stage, rather than seasoning heavily at the end.
• Be careful with anything that will reduce. Salt concentrates as water leaves, so season a reducing sauce only when it has reached its final volume.
• Watch the salty ingredients — stock cubes, soy sauce, anchovies, capers, olives, bacon, parmesan, miso. Season after those go in, not before.
• Use the same salt consistently. Fine table salt is roughly twice as salty by volume as flaky sea salt, so a teaspoon means two different things.
• Add salt with your fingers rather than pouring from the box. It is slower, which is the point.

Common questions