# Help!  Seasoned Salt Accident



## Motch119

I was making sloppy joes - which I make with 3 lbs venison, a little seasoned salt, peppers, onions, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and 1 small can on sauce.  I took out my seasoned salt to add A LITTLE, and wasn't paying attention and the shaker part was off!  I dumped in a lot.  I spooned out what I could, and finished preparing, but it wasn't really very edible.  So now I have about 2 lbs of WAY too salty sloppy joe meat - how can I fix it into something else?


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## FryBoy

Add a gallon of water and call it Spicy Venison Soup. 

Oh, yeah -- add a few cut up potatoes -- they'll help absorb the salt. Pasta would be good, too.


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## Motch119

Thanks!  I can definitely do that, but I'll have to freeze it - tomorrow's going to be 96!


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## FryBoy

A fine day for soup!


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## Andy M.

Another option would be to make another batch of sloppy joe without the seasoned salt and combine the two batches.

Don't bother with the potato.  It does not reduce the saltiness of a food.  It absorbs salt AND liquid, leaving the same concentration of salty liquid behind.  Once salt is dissolved in a liquid, there is nothing that can 'undissolve' it and get it to soak into a potato by itself.


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## GB

Andy is right on. The potato trick is an old wives tale. It does not work. Potatoes do not selectively remove salt. They act exactly like a sponge. The sponge will soak up some liquid and salt along with that liquid, but the concentration of salt will not change.

The only way to reduce the saltiness is to dilute it somehow. Making another batch without salt and combining the two is your best option.


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## urmaniac13

I would go with Andy's idea. Just make another batch, salt free, and combine the two. You can always freeze the extra. If I remember correctly, lots of sloppy joe recipes call for ketchup and if you use them, beware, ketchup also contain salt... use instead either unsalted tomato paste or puree, or combination. Forget about potatoes, unless you are indeed fond of potatoes in your sloppy joe.


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## GB

Here is a great article that dispells the potato myth.


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## jennyema

GB said:
			
		

> Andy is right on. The potato trick is an old wives tale. It does not work. Potatoes do not selectively remove salt. They act exactly like a sponge. The sponge will soak up some liquid and salt along with that liquid, but the concentration of salt will not change.
> 
> The only way to reduce the saltiness is to dilute it somehow. Making another batch without salt and combining the two is your best option.


 

Similarly, pasta does not selectively absorb salt either.


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## licia

I keep seeing the thing about not salting beans til the last because it "hardens" the beans which I know isn't true.  If the beans aren't old, they cook well with the salt and the flavor is better. If they are old and hard, nothing will help.


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## GB

Exactly right licia!


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## FryBoy

"Absorb" was the wrong word -- that's just nonsense. However, potatoes or pasta would add more "stuff" to the soup and thus helps to dissipate the total amount of salt in each bite, and it would keep the end product from seeming too thin (depending on how much water he needs to add).


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## Gretchen

Another vote for everything Andy said, including the myth about potatoes.


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## Andy M.

My preference has always been to make another batch of the same stuff without the offending ingredient and combine the two.  

I prefer this to adding other ingredients as that changes the recipe.  Although a sloppy joe pasta dish could taste pretty good.

No doubt, if you add anything (except more seasoned salt) to the original recipe, the saltiness will be reduced because of the added volume.


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## JohnL

Maybe it wouldn't taste too salty if you served it over top of a plain old baked potato to offset the excessive seasoning.


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## auntdot

Don't obviously know how salty it is.

Perhaps could add some more tomatoes and fixins and make a pasta sauce.

Maybe even turn it into a kind of bolognese sauce, a bit of cream might lessen the saltiness a tad.

If it is just too salty, I would toss it.

Sometimes it is not worth it, IMHO.


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## Bangbang

Throw it out and order a pizza.


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## purrfectlydevine

As an aside, if you're doubling a recipe like a casserole, don't double the salt.  I did that one Thanksgiving.  Luckily, I tasted it before I baked it.  I had to do what Andy M. suggested and make a single batch with no salt and combine with the too salty batch.


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## Gretchen

jennyema said:
			
		

> Similarly, pasta does not selectively absorb salt either.


 
I don't understand  "selectively"  but it does absorb it. It is the time to add salt in order not to have it be blah.  Surely you aren't suggesting not salting pasta water.


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## GB

Gretchen said:
			
		

> Surely you aren't suggesting not salting pasta water.


No one is suggesting that Gretchen. What Jenny is saying is that adding pasta or potatoes to something that is too salty is not a way to remove the extra salt.

There is an old wives tale that says if you over salt something then you can add slices of potato and the potato will "selectively" remove the salt while leaving everything else, kind of like a salt magnet. You re then supposed to get rid of the potato thus getting rid of the extra salt. This simply does not work. The same holds true for past which is what Jenny was saying.

Yes if you leave the potatoes or pasta in the dish then the concentration of salt will be less, but you have then changed the dish completely.


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## Gretchen

If you will look above, I agreed with Andy who first posted that this was an old wives' tale.  Yes.


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## GB

I was just responding to your comment to Jenny. It seems (and forgive me if I was wrong) that you did not unnderstand what she was saying since she never mentioned anything about pasta water or not salting it.


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## BreezyCooking

I also agree with making another unsalted batch & combining the two. Also, once the overly-salty batch is frozen & thawed again, it won't be quite as salty as it was before. Probably not "edible" unsalty, but less than it was fresh. Freezing tends to do that to seasoning.

But really - the "add an unseasoned batch to the salty one" is a terrific idea. Just mix them all together & freeze them in family-size portions.

I made the same mistake you did more than once, only with crushed red pepper flakes.  I opened up the "spoon out" side of the container instead of the sprinkle side, & out came about a cupfull of crushed red pepper.  Just like you, I scooped out as much as I could, but man, was that chili HOT HOT HOT - lol!!!!


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## Bangbang

I love salt. I have a salt block in my bedroom. Yummy


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## GB

OK new procedures...Anytime you make something too salty, send it to Bang!


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## expatgirl

Wow--what a funny deja vu moment!!!!!! I can remeber when I first posted many moons ago and suggested the potato sponge method to get rid of extra salt in response to a thread------was I ever set straight.  Only then did I realize what a valuable resource this site was---so I suggest what everyone else is and just double it with the non-salt recipe or throw it out and don't tell anyone.  Smiley face!


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## Bangbang

GB said:
			
		

> OK new procedures...Anytime you make something too salty, send it to Bang!


 
Thanyou.....I am waiting for the shipments. BTW...nice photos. Dominican Republic makes some great cigars.


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## GB

Thanks bang! The house manager offered to get us some good cigars, but she never came through


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## FryBoy

BreezyCooking said:
			
		

> Also, once the overly-salty batch is frozen & thawed again, it won't be quite as salty as it was before. ... Freezing tends to do that to seasoning.


 
I have to question whether freezing can remove salt from food, or reduce the apparent saltiness of any item. 

As for herbs and spices, that's a different matter, and in some cases I think freezing and reheating increases the flavors from those ingredients.


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## Claire

FryBoy, in my experience freezing INCREASES saltiness of foods.  Because you loose some water, a slice of ham, for example, is much saltier after being frozen and thawed.


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## KeyLimePaige

you can also add some lemon juice. that tends to counter salty-ness in foods.


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## Billdolfski

GB said:
			
		

> Andy is right on. The potato trick is an old wives tale. It does not work. Potatoes do not selectively remove salt. They act exactly like a sponge. The sponge will soak up some liquid and salt along with that liquid, but the concentration of salt will not change.
> 
> The only way to reduce the saltiness is to dilute it somehow. Making another batch without salt and combining the two is your best option.



and I always thought it worked.  Doesn't the acidity of wine or vinegar offset salt though?


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## GB

No, not really. Try it yourself to see. Make a salad and dress it with dressing (with vinegar) then take a bite. Then sprinkle some salt on and take a bite. You will notice the salt.


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