Scene: 15 minutes to dinnertime.
You did everything you right. Or so you thought. You salted every step of the way, but maybe you went one step too far, and dinner now has Dead Sea-level salinity. It's inedible. You panic.
Wipe those salty tears, friend. There are ways to solve your problem.
Dilution is the Solution
One quick fix for over-salted broths or liquid dishes is to add water. Say you made a Vietnamese chicken noodle soup or a mixed curry and got a little overzealous with your salt sprinkling. Just pour in some cold water and bring it back up to a simmer. You may dull the flavor of the other ingredients, but you’ll have equalized the flavor levels on the dish and can add back the spice to taste (but not too much).
Acid=Flavor Mask
Lemon juice, vinegar—whatever the acid, it's your saving grace. Use a squeeze of lemon or a drizzle of a mild vinegar to help mask some of the aggressive salt with a new flavor. Acid will bring out the best of salty potatoes or salty fish (fish and chips, anyone?). Opt for something all-purpose like a white wine vinegar and don’t go overboard: you don’t want something that’s too salty and too sour.
Soaking
Say you bought a grocery store ham, a pack of bacon, or some salt pork that’s just too, well, salty. Cover the offending pork with water and let it sit for a couple hours. The excess salt will leach out into the water.
Spuds and Salt
Adding starch is a quick fix for a too-spicy soup, like in a Thai chicken curry. Add a raw potato (no need to cut or peel it) to a liquid dish like a soup or a curry to soak up some of the extra salt as they cook and will add some starch that will dilute the saltiness further. The results however, are mild, so don't depend on this to fix everything.
Make it Creamy
Adding a creamy component can change the perception of taste and make dish's flavor seem more mild. An overly salty chicken taco gets both texture and a bit of tempering from additions like avocado or sour cream. Using heavy cream in a tomato sauce makes it richer, but it also tones down the salt.
a word on prevention
Keep an eye on ingredients that may be adding salt to your food. Sodium-rich sauces like soy or fish sauce are going to add their own salinity along with flavor. The same goes for olives, pickles, capers, and preserved fish like canned anchovies. That quick shower of Parmesan cheese you're giving your finished pasta also packs a salty punch, much more than you might realize. Sometimes, you need very little additional salt if you're cooking with cheese.
