It’s easy to accidentally over-salt soup, stocks and stews and for ages I thought that there wasn’t anything you can do about it. But it turns out it’s quite easy to repair something that’s too salty: just put a raw potato in the soup or stew. As the potato cooks it will absorb some of the salt and then before you serve up just remove the potato. Simple.
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August 20, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Plus, you end up with a salty potato. Bonus.
August 25, 2007 at 1:46 am
[…] How to reduce saltiness in soups/stews […]
September 4, 2007 at 11:31 am
Myth.
July 15, 2008 at 11:31 am
this is not a myth
you never study osmosis at school?
July 15, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Yes, I did. And I also de-bunked this myth by doing a practical experiment during A-level biology, using various salt solutions, plain water, and potatoes. Oh and an electrical conductivity meter. If you want more details, just ask.
July 4, 2012 at 3:51 am
more details please
December 14, 2012 at 4:57 pm
I’m asking. soup broth is to salty
October 4, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Or You can use Washed charcoal to remove salt
Take few pisces of wooden charcoal and wash it throughly. Cover it with few pieces of kleenex. Place the covered charcoal pieces in a clean cloth (like cheese cloth) and place it inside your soup for 5 min. Stir the soup lightly.
The Chracoal absorbs the dissolved salt from the soup.
December 16, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I have just read this thread, and have to say that Fixup’s experiments must have been inadequately controlled.
If you cook a potato in a pan of unsalted water and compare it to one cooked in salted, the taste clearly shows that some of salt must have moved into the potato (not sure how you could measure this though).
Perhaps some of the starches from the potato move into the water, such that Fixup’s meter registered the same conductivity (or perhaps he did not make proper allowance for the water that would have evaporated whilst the potato cooked, thus increasing the effective salt solution).
Whilst the effect might be small, Science says that it must also be real.
The downside is that Science also says that the potato will take on some of the other flavours from the soup/stew, so you might have been better simply pouring away some of the salty stock, and topping up with clean water.
July 6, 2009 at 3:28 am
So the potato does remove salt from the water. Very little in my experience. But the science experiment Fixup suggests must have been faulty, as common sense and taste proves otherwise.
But generally speaking, we don’t want to impart potato flavour into just any soup. If you truly want to reduce the saltiness of a soup you can add more nage, or light broth. Depending on your soup, just boil related flavours into another pot of water, remove those vegetables, and add the nage to the salty soup as required. This is an essential tool in all busy kitchens. I have at least a liter of nage next to my Bain-Marie everyday.
May 30, 2016 at 3:49 am
Thank you so much! This is the most logical — and best — solution on the Internet! Replacing some of the salty broth with non-salty broth is perfect. I am going to try the same thing, using tomatoes instead of water since mine is a tomato-based soup.
September 16, 2009 at 4:24 pm
[…] on ympäri maailmaa levinnyt myytti, ja sitä on testattukin monessa eri yhteydessä. Tietääkseni kukaan ei ole pystynyt […]
March 7, 2012 at 8:25 am
Hmmm………yes. Well, that clears that up then. Insightful. Thank-you.
And would you like fries with that?
December 24, 2009 at 7:29 pm
What is NAGE?
September 6, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Hey, WTF am I supposed to do if there are already potatos in the stew? anyone with a real answer? like can I add “blah blah blah” to remove the stalty taste.
Any help?
December 2, 2011 at 8:09 pm
HAHAHAHA, Jessica, i think you’re pretty much screwed. Or in this case (you were) pretty screwed.
September 14, 2010 at 7:13 am
I can give you the answer but you were not nice on saying it.. so sorry cant help anymore
September 24, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Loisa, please, if not for Jessica then please tell the rest of us if you know any other way of reducing the salt-contents in a soup. (other than the potato of course…)
Any help would be much appreciated.
November 22, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Add milk! Always does the trick for me.
January 22, 2011 at 7:57 am
jeez guys,,,anyoe knows that you check seasoning before salting,,,,esp if using manufactured stock cubes, or broth as they are always quite salty anyways,,,,i hardly ever add my own salt to soup and stews,,,,just taste taste and keep tasting !!!!! amatures !!!
May 30, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Amateur speller.
February 25, 2011 at 10:47 am
If you’re talking about soup which is not cream based soup, your best bet would be adding more water into it.. If more water aren’t allowed into the soup like creame soup for instance, your best bet would be to make another batch with very much less sugar and mix the two batches…
You guys said that Fixup’s experiment isn’t controlled enough, somehow I began to question about your tastebuds.. No the right words should be the method of your tasting the soup. How are you tasting it? Did you after the fist taste, rinse your mouth and tongue with adequate water to ensure all the saltiness has gone?
For the potato, it’s doesn’t really work if we are talking about very oversalted soup.. the potato absorb not only the salt but the water.. natrium exists inside the potato and this will cause potato to not absorb salt very effectively. in fact the salt concentration in the soup wouldn’t be very much of a difference.
The addition of potato is a myth and a fact in its own sense.. Myth because it doesn’t really reduce the concentration of salt in the soup.. Fact because it does absorb salt into the itself along with water.
By experiment, the addition of potato will very slightly increase the conductivity.. However, the increament isn’t statistically different. The increament is simply because there are other salts aside from NaCl(standard table salt) present in the potato, and these salts went into the water. The conclusion of the experiments are, the salt concentration before and after the addition of salt is practically the same.
If you’re wondering about the experiment are faulty, I can asure you that everything that can be controlled have been controlled. Everything is controlled and taken into account, from the surface area of the potato to the room temperature and humidity. the data are proccessed statistically.
The problem with the taste is because when you first taste something very salty, the salt molecule will bind to your taste bud occupying most of the receptor (practically numb your tongue).. after you add potato, and you taste it again, you will taste it a little bit less salty. This is simply because the salt from the first taste hasn’t completely gone yet thus, there will still be difference in the saltiness..
It’s like after you consumed a very sweet juice, your tastebud will get used to the sweetness and you drink it again, it will taste less sweet, If you taste it again and again and again and again…, In the end you don’t say the juice is very sweet anymore.. you’ll just say the juice is sweet.
February 25, 2011 at 10:48 am
oops.. typo.. instead of sugar, it should read salt..
October 2, 2011 at 10:58 am
Most answers are on wiki: A nage is a flavoured liquid used for poaching delicate foods, typically seafood. A traditional nage is a broth flavoured with white wine, vegetables, and herbs, in which seafood is poached. Cooking something à la nage means “while swimming” (French nager = to swim) and refers to cooking in a well-flavoured court bouillon. Eventually the term “nage” itself came to refer to a broth which, while light, is strong enough to be served as a light sauce.
** So in fact “no need to fight” means fight the saltiness with more unsalted soup or stock – that is to say dilute it. The disposable potato remains a better solution in my view.
April 12, 2012 at 9:19 pm
I just improved my pinto beans in the crockpot that I had salted too much. I took some of the liquid out, added water and beef stock. Then a cup of picanti sauce. I think they are going to be perfect. Here in Mexico we feed our workers lunch. My house is being painted and they are going to have a grand lunch tomorrow… beans, rice and totillas. Better than the sandwiches they have had this week!
July 9, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Charcoal can reduce the salt content in a salty soup. Just a little wash and remove charcoal after boiling the soup.
January 12, 2013 at 11:04 pm
My chili turned out too salty this time and I tried the raw potato trick…didn’t work…..any suggestions?
December 26, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Hey, I’m cooking beans and leftover ham from Christmas (in a crock)…came out a little salty so I added more filtered water and thought I would try the potato method, so threw 3 small ones in. If it works, great. If not, then I will have cooked potatoes for something else.
January 12, 2015 at 9:41 am
You must have bought your ham the same place I bought mine. I made ham and beans – added no salt – and the soup is so salty I don’t think it will be edible. Tried the potato trick already. I think the dog is going to get a treat.
February 22, 2015 at 8:15 pm
Try dividing the pot into two add water and all your seasoning and start again.