We've all done it ... spent time in the kitchen making a dish that we are longing too eat, but it's ended up being too salty. In this post, I share some of my own tips for fixing an overly salty recipe.
Fixing salty savory dishes
The first thing to decide is this ... is your dish too salty, or is it just unbalanced? Dishes need to be the right blend of: sweet; sour; salty; bitter. Sometimes, a dish that tastes salty needs the addition of something sweet/sour ... or sometimes the dish just makes you cough with all the salt and nothing is going to fix this, except reducing the salt.
Getting the balance right - if you decide that your dish just represents as salty because it is not well-balanced, then these are things you might want to add:
Balance the sweetness?
Honey
Tomatoes, marinated with a little sugar
Coconut
Maple syrup (handle this with care - this can be overly sweet, quickly)
Balance the sourness?
Lime juice
Gooseberries
Tamarind
Balsamic Vinegar
Pickled onions / pickled beets
Lemon juice
Balance the bitterness?
Radishes (very, very finely diced)
Kale
Coriander (it takes a large bunch, pulverized, but the taste can be great)
Cranberries (pureed?)
Cacao
Espresso coffee
Red wine (use one with high tannin)
Remove the saltiness, instead of changing the balance
Add raw potato. This really does work. Osmosis will draw salt into the potato. Peel the potatoes, cut them in half, and drop the halves into your dish for up to ten minutes. Don't let the potato cook enough to start breaking up. Fish them out and throw them away.
Add dairy. Best options, usually, are cream, or ricotta cheese, or mascarpone cheese. These will counteract the saltiness. Sometimes, the best option is to remove the liquid from your dish and blend it with the dairy goods then replace the creamy liquid back into the dish.
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