What to do when we use too much salt in a recipe? From rice to a very salty sauce, there is a solution with the advice of the Foodiescuela that transforms a common kitchen mistake into a valuable lesson in culinary chemistry. The solution to excess salt is in sensory balance (fat and acid), not magical absorption.
Chef James Tahhan explains how to elevate or save your dishes with practical advice based on simple, effective science.
For example, the trick is in the fat “to fix your rice, you can use a little butter or olive oil, this will help neutralize the excess saltiness.”
While to fix a sauce, you can add cream, milk or even yogurt, which in addition to softening it provides acidic notes that elevate the flavor.
How fat decreases salty taste
The chef’s explanation is that when using fatty elements, the fat coats the palate and is the most effective method to counteract excess salt.
In this context, if the rice was a little salty, you can add a touch of a little butter or olive oil to reduce the saltiness.
In this case, the false potato technique is ruled out, since it only absorbs salt from the contact area, not from the entire dish.
Does the cream have the ability to soften the salty taste?
The chef goes far beyond butter and salt, and explains that in the case of salty sauces or pastas, ingredients with high dairy content can be used, such as: cream, milk and yogurt.
“If you made a pasta and the sauce was too salty, you can always use a little cream, which we already know has a high fat content, you can use a little milk, which also has a high fat content, or you can use a little yogurt,” he says.
Yogurt is a food of dairy origin, which in addition to fat, its natural acid content creates “in our brain a new acidic and non-salty sensory experience and it will dissipate a little of the energy of that extreme salinity that you have on your palate at this moment.”
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