Can Raw Potatoes Fix Food That Is Too Salty?
I am much more likely to re-elect food than underestimate it. I love salt, perhaps more than others, and from time to time the salt shaker eludes me. Unfortunately, once sodium chloride is in your food, it is very difficult to remove it (especially if you are making sauce, soup, or any other mostly liquid food).
You may have heard that a piece of raw potato can “absorb” excess salt, but this is not true. Potatoes are unable to selectively metabolize just one ingredient. They really absorb water, including salt, but whatever they do, it reduces the total volume of salt water – the ratio of salt and water will not change. (If you want to remove some of the salt water, just drain it.)
To fix food that is too salty, you need to change the salt-to-food ratio back to the food side. The easiest way to do this is to add more food to the pot, be it the same food or something completely different. To make the tomato sauce overly seasoned, try adding a few more canned tomatoes (or wine!); add more broth or water for soup; for the stew, try adding more vegetables (yes, including potatoes).
Another strategy is to get the scents to compete for your tongue’s attention by adding a competing ingredient. Sugar, acid and fat are especially good for compensating for salinity. A few teaspoons of table sugar or a little honey can balance out the excess salt, as can a pomace (or three) of lemon or some vinegar. Saturated heavy cream (or some other fatty dairy products) not only dilutes but also mutes , making the salt taste difficult.
If you are working with food rich in liquid, you can drain some of the liquid and replace it. If you’re working with a large piece of over-seasoned meat, try rubbing off some of the seasoning. If the salt has soaked the meat, chop it up and use it as an accent (like bacon) rather than as a main course. If you’re making a large pot of small things (like beans, rice, or other grains), you can add more, toss them all in lightly salted soup or stew, toss them all along with the unsalted sauce, or try a combination of these. Don’t expect even one raw potato to solve your saltiness problem. Potatoes are very magical, but they simply cannot selectively remove sodium chloride ions from broth, broth, or sauce.