3 Ways To Fix A Dish With Too Much Salt

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Picture this: You've spent hours in the kitchen crafting the perfect dish. You've cooked and seasoned each element to what seems like perfection, but then you dip a spoon into the sauce and it's too salty— what a disaster! It's a common occurrence because adding salt is a delicate line to tow. The right amount is perfection and, too much is overwhelming. But instead of scrapping the food entirely, you can employ different ways to get around the issue.

Crafty chefs have developed methods for lessening the impact of that salt, depending on the kind of dish you're creating. And, like many things when it comes to cooking or baking, these approaches are often rooted in basic scientific principles like dilution or the interactions between salt and acids. So if you're in a pinch and need to make your dish less salty, we've pulled together a list of some of the simplest ways to do so.

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One of the most straightforward ways to save an overly salty dish, particularly sauce, gravy, or soup, is to add more liquid. This simple approach follows the principles of a basic dilution. The liquid lowers the concentration of salt, which then becomes less noticeable. For soups that don't feature dairy (chicken noodle, for example), supplementing with extra chicken broth (preferably with no sodium) or water could do the trick.

For a dish that incorporates cream or milk, mixing in a bit more dairy is a great way to mitigate saltiness. The sugars in dairy products balance out the flavor by covering the insides of your mouth. Items like butter, cream cheese, or sour cream have a double benefit: They contribute another layer of rich texture and flavor. This solution would work well for cream-based dishes, like this pasta alla Gigi Hadid (aka, spicy vodka pasta).

One important consideration is that incorporating more fluids could also impact the balance of other seasonings in your dish. Once you get that salt level right, go back to your other spices and make sure those are still on par as well.

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If your fridge is lacking extra heavy cream, throwing in some sugar can also transform your salt-heavy dishes. Sugar and salt are a desirable combination (think, salted caramels or chocolate-covered pretzels) because the two flavors are able to balance each other out. For already-sweet dishes, like a cake batter or cookie dough, sprinkling in some more granulated sugar can mitigate the issue. For savory dishes, the issue can become a bit more complicated.

If you're working with a dairy-based sauce, for example, a splash of cream should do the trick and not alter the sauce's flavor too much. For other dishes, it's important to keep the flavor profiles of the sugar you're using in mind. Brown sugar leans into caramel notes. Honey and maple syrup will impart their own distinct flavors. If you're crafting a homemade barbecue sauce and go overboard with the salt, brown sugar or honey could be great additions as long as you don't mind altering the taste beyond sweetness. Plain granulated sugar, on the other hand, is fairly neutral. 

When working with sugar, it's best to start small and work your way up. Excessive sweetness is just as much a problem as too much salt, so make sure you incorporate it in increments to get the ideal amount.

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Acids provide an easy way to fix food that's too spicy and work to balance out the other flavors present in any given dish. As with sugar, upping the acid can fix oversalted food. You're not actually decreasing the amount of salt you've already added, rather that acid is effective in changing how you perceive the salty flavor, lessening its impact.

The term "acid" encompasses a wide variety of ingredients, and there are options for acidic inclusions to any kind of dish you're crafting. The most obvious acids are citrus juices — lemons, limes, and oranges. So if you're crafting fish tacos, for example, a small squeeze of lime juice could help mitigate any overwhelming saltiness while also tacking on another layer of delicious flavor to the dish. Another acidic food is the tomato. For dishes that already incorporate tomatoes, tossing in just a tad more paste or juice could work wonders on an over-salted sauce.

You can also call on the powder versions of acids that exist naturally in foods. Citric acid, for example, is common in fruits and veggies but you can also purchase it in a powdered form. Opting for this version of an acid is useful in situations when adding more liquid to a dish could alter the consistency in a negative way.