How to Repair an Over Salted Stew

Stew is a hearty, cost-effective meal that can be made in one pot with inexpensive ingredients.

A stew is a slow-cooked dish with solid food in braising liquid, usually made with tough root vegetables and meat. This liquid is cooked down, combining with the rendered fat of the meat and the starch of the vegetables to become thick and gravy-like. When flavors become very concentrated like this, it's very easy to over-season and make the dish too salty. Correcting this issue can be done without throwing off the flavor of the stew.

Instructions

1. Peel potatoes and cut them into thick rounds or cubes. Add these peeled potatoes to the cooking stew, but do not stir them into the stew unless you want to eat them with the stew.

2. Cook the potatoes for at least an hour with the stew. Potatoes have a unique property of readily absorbing salt when braising. You can remove these potatoes if the stew tastes less salty to your liking.

3. Add water to the stew while cooking in the last few minutes to thin the reduced stew, or milk to the finished bowl to mellow out the flavors if the stew is too salty.

References

• madeater; Salty, Wintry, Buttery Stew; December 21, 2007