How to Make Food Less Salty

Raw potatoes can help make food taste less salty.

Foods can become overly salty either by accident when cooking or simply a poor recipe; some ingredients, like salt-cured fish and meats, can just be too salty for some people's taste. There are a few ways to make food taste less salty, though you won't actually be removing much salt in terms of sodium content. Still, the food will be edible, when it may not have been otherwise.

Things You'll Need

• Medium or large potato
• Potato peeler
• Sharp knife
• Sugar
• Low sodium chicken, fish, vegetable or beef stock or broth
• Colander
• Disposable paper towels

Instructions

1. Peel a medium or large potato with a potato peeler and cut it into eight even segments with a sharp knife. Put the potato in the food and continue cooking it until the potato is fully cooked, then discard the potato. The potato will absorb a lot of the salt in the food as it cooks.

2. Add a small amount of sugar at a time and stir the food to make sure it is evenly distributed. Taste the food and add more sugar as necessary, always adding small amounts each time. Sugar helps to counteract salt, and it is commonly used by chefs to flavor foods that have been salt-cured and are too salty to serve right away.

3. Dilute soups and liquid based foods with low-sodium chicken, fish, vegetable or beef stock or broth depending on the type of dish. Make sure you use low-sodium stock or broth because most commercially prepared stocks and broths have a fairly high amount of salt in them, which will not reduce the salt flavor.

4. Add water to a pan or pot with meat in it and continue cooking the food until the water is boiling. Strain the food in a colander and pat the food dry with disposable paper towels. The water will remove some of the salt from the outside of the meat without drying it out.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid adding more herbs and spices, particularly dried herbs and spices to food that is too salty. Some commercially sold spices have added salt, and some spices can intensify the salt flavor. Always use fresh herbs sparingly when trying to mask an overly salty flavor.

Resources

• TheReluctantGourmet.com: Cooking Techniques