How do you rescue a dish that's too salty?

Everyone over-salts something eventually. The pinch that was really a fistful, the stock cube you forgot was there, the Parmesan on top of salty capers on top of salted pasta water. The good news: most dishes can be rescued. The bad news: not by magic.

The potato myth

The classic tip says drop a raw potato into an over-salted soup and it will soak up the salt. It is a nice idea. Fine Dining Lovers boiled salted water with and without a peeled potato and measured both: the salt concentration was identical. A potato absorbs salty liquid; it does not selectively pull salt out of it. You lose a little of the soup and gain a salty potato.

So the useful fixes are the boring ones.

1. Dilute

For soups, stews, sauces and anything liquid, add more unsalted liquid: water, unsalted stock, a tin of tomatoes, milk or cream where it suits the dish. The same Fine Dining Lovers article recommends dilution as the first fix. Then simmer gently if it needs to thicken again, taste, and add more liquid if needed.

If the dish becomes too thin, see the next step.

2. Bulk it up

Increase everything except the salt.

• Soups and stews: add more vegetables, beans or lentils, cooked without salt. Tinned beans and chopped tomatoes are excellent for this, provided they are low in salt.
• Pasta sauces: make more of the base without salt, and mix the two.
• Grain dishes and risotto: stir in plain cooked rice, pasta or grains.
• Vegetables: toss in more vegetables, roasted or steamed without salt.

The result is a bigger batch. Freeze some, or have friends round.

3. Balance it

These do not reduce the salt, but they change how we perceive it, which can be enough when a dish is only a little over.

• Acid. A squeeze of lemon, a few drops of vinegar. Fine Dining Lovers also suggests acid to help mask saltiness.
• Fat. Olive oil, butter, cream, a spoonful of yoghurt or ricotta.
• Sweetness. A little honey or a pinch of sugar in tomato-based dishes.
• Fresh herbs and a little chilli bring other flavours forward.

Go slowly and taste each time. Too much acid on top of too much salt is a second problem.

4. Serve it differently

Sometimes the cleverest rescue is on the plate.

• Serve a salty stew over plain rice, polenta, bread or unsalted potatoes.
• Spoon a salty sauce over more pasta than usual, cooked in less salted water.
• Serve a salty salad with plain bread, fresh cheese or boiled eggs.
• Use an over-salted sauce as a seasoning: a little stirred into a plain dish.

5. Rinse it, if you can

Some things can be rinsed: over-salted cooked vegetables, beans, pasta that has not yet met its sauce. Rinse briefly and finish with fresh oil.

Stopping it next time

• Taste as you go, and season gradually.
• Know which ingredients are already salty: stock cubes, cheese, capers, olives, soy sauce, tinned goods.
• Salt the pasta water properly, then go lightly on the sauce. Our page on how much salt has more.
• Different salts measure differently. A spoonful of fine salt can be noticeably saltier than a spoonful of flaky salt. See does the type of salt matter.