Dishes end up too salty while you don't have time to make new ones? Don't worry, as long as you understand the form of interaction between salt and other cooking ingredients, surely your cooking can be saved easily!
Step
Method 1 of 2: Saving Overly Salty Food
Step 1. Replace some of the liquid that is too salty
If you're making a gravy dish like soup or curry, the easiest way to reduce the saltiness is to add more plain liquid. Discard some of the sauce that is too salty, then add a plain liquid such as water, broth that does not contain salt, milk, or coconut milk (adjust your choice of liquid to your type of cooking).
Step 2. Add sugar or sour-flavored ingredients
Adding new ingredients is a bold move, but the results can be really effective! Believe me, the sour or sweet taste can balance the salty taste in your cooking.
- Sour-flavoured ingredients can work well without reducing the deliciousness of the dish. Try adding lemon juice, vinegar, wine, tomatoes, or pickles to your cooking.
- In addition to sugar, you can also add honey or sweetened condensed milk (both of which are suitable for combination with sour taste). Try adding 1 tsp. sour and sweet ingredients, then taste your cooking. If the taste is still not perfect, add back the sour and sweet ingredients of your choice in the same ratio.
Step 3. Add recipe measurements
If you have the extra time and ingredients, try adding a dose to your recipe. For example, you can add an amount of meat and vegetables to your soup, or an amount of unsalted butter to your spaghetti sauce. This method will automatically reduce the salt content in your cooking; in fact, this method is the only way to save overly salty bread dough.
If you want a more natural taste, mash the cauliflower until smooth and add it to your cooking
Step 4. Serve overly salty dishes with starchy foods
Rice, pasta or potatoes are some examples of foods that are starchy and delicious served with almost any type of dish. Flour can not replace the role of sugar, but at least it can increase the quantity of food.
You may have heard or read the following tips: if the dish is too salty, add the potatoes to the sauce; after the salt content in the sauce is absorbed by the potatoes, throw the potatoes away immediately. Don't trust these tips! In fact, potatoes will indeed absorb liquids that contain salt, but the salt content in cooking will not change
Step 5. Wash the over-salted vegetables
Vegetables that have been boiled briefly can be washed and put back into the dish. These tips will indeed damage the texture and taste of vegetables cooked by steaming, roasting, or sautéing, but at least you can apply them if the vegetables have not been cooked for too long.
Step 6. Serve the food hot
Did you know that temperature can affect taste? In fact, food served cold will taste saltier than food served warm or hot. If you can't heat up something that's too salty, try serving it with a hot drink like coffee or hot tea.
Since these tips are not very effective, make sure you combine them with the other tips listed above
Method 2 of 2: Preventing Overly Salty Food
Step 1. Use kosher salt
If you often have trouble controlling the amount of salt that goes into cooking, try replacing regular salt with kosher salt. The difference is, kosher salt has larger grains so that its portion in cooking is easier to control.
For baking, make sure you stick to table salt. Table salt has smaller salt crystals so it dissolves more easily in the dough
Step 2. Add salt remotely
When adding salt to food, keep your hands at least 25 cm above the dish. That way, the salt won't clump together and is spread out evenly.
Step 3. Add salt little by little
Every time you add a new ingredient that is not salty, add a pinch of salt, then taste. Continue to do this process to monitor the taste of the dish from time to time. It's better to bother while processing than when the food is ready to be served, right?
Step 4. Consider the amount of fluid to be reduced
As the cooking time goes on, the liquid in your dishes will inevitably decrease. Therefore, make sure you only add a little salt at the beginning of the cooking time; after the liquid is reduced and the dish is ready to serve, add salt again and adjust the saltiness to your taste.
