> KITCHEN 911 Oversalted your sauce? Too much spice in your soup? Tips for correcting heavy handed recipes./
“The amount of salt and pepper you want to use is your business. I don’t like to get in people’s business,” writes Vertamae Smart- Grosvenor in the introduction to her seminal “Vibration Cooking, or The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl.” I think about that a lot when I’m developing recipes, because it’s the truth: One person’s perfectly seasoned chowder, soondubu jjigae or pozole is another’s overseasoned mistake.
Then there are the actual mistakes that happen in the kitchen all the time. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve tipped a spice jar into a bubbling vat of stew, meaning to add just a sprinkle. Adding too much salt is a common blunder, as is adding too much acidity or spicy heat. But there’s nothing that will make you feel more confident in the kitchen than knowing how to fix something when it’s broken.
Too much salt
It’s easy to over-salt anything, but especially dishes with multiple components or steps, such as soups, stews or sauces. If the recipe is based on a meat-based stock, or contains bone-in meat, know that bones are a source of sodium. Most storebought stocks contain some salt, meat- or vegetable-based, and any stock will contribute saltiness to a final dish, especially if the broth reduced as the dish cooked.
Start by playing defense: “If more than one of the added ingredients is salty, especially for ingredients like miso, soy sauce or dried shrimp, I would wait to add any salt the recipe calls for until I’ve tasted it at the end,” says Nik Sharma, author of “Season,” and the new book, “The Flavor Equation: The Science of Great Cooking Explained in More Than 100 Essential Recipes.”
But if it’s too late, there are a few things you can do. If it’s just a little bit too salty, sometimes a touch of sweetness will help, advises Andrea Bemis, author of the new book “Local Dirt: Seasonal Recipes for Eating Close to Home,” and co-owner of the Mt. Hood, Ore.based Tumbleweed Farm. “I’ll add some honey, a tablespoon at a time, and taste to see if that helps balance the flavors,” she says. Sugar, maple syrup or molasses can work, too.
If a dish is extremely salty, you may need to do some slightly more involved doctoring. “Any
good starch will suck out the excess salinity. You can put chunks of par-cooked potatoes in, let the dish simmer for a few minutes, taste, and then remove them,” Sharma says, noting that you can tie the potatoes up in cheesecloth to make them easier to fish out.
Too much acidity
Vinegar, citrus juices, wine and pickled and fermented vegetables can all bring acidity to a dish, balancing its richness and perking up its flavors.to fix something that’s too acidic, Samson will add something neutral, such as a full-fat dairy
Creamy chicken tortilla soup for two. or potatoes, which can be pureed into a sauce or thick soup. “I’ll also reach for something sweet, maybe caramelized onions or honey, which can offset the sourness,” Samson says.
If a sauce or thicker stew is too acidic — but not too salty — Sharma says you can add baking
soda, which is alkaline. After adding the baking soda, taste the dish again to make sure it’s not too salty. “But don’t add too much baking soda, as it will start to taste brackish,” Sharma cautions.
Finally, some of the same tricks that help ease saltiness can help when a dish is too acidic: Bulking it up with more vegetables or replacing some of the liquid with unseasoned water or broth will help balance the final flavors.
Too much heat or spice
Generally speaking, accidentally overseasoning a dish with any one kind of mild spice or herb — cumin, for instance, or tarragon — can be balanced by adjusting the amount of salt, acidity or other complementary spices. But what if you’ve added too much heat? Try dropping in half a peeled apple. The flesh absorbs some of the excess seasoning while leaching out just a bit of sweetness to help balance the flavors.
Diluting the broth or base with water or stock can help, too, as can bulking up by adding more cooked - but unseasoned - vegetables or meat.
Finally, about that adage to “season as you go,” both Sharma and Bemis caution home cooks against adding seasoning at every stage. Instead, they suggest that you “taste as you go.” Either way, Bemis says, “the important thing to remember is that almost everything can be saved.”