Disaster! Can this be saved?

[pam claughton]

In case I ever do this again, and my 'cure' didn't work, I'd love to know a solution for this...if there is one. What would you have done in this scenario?

Do you ever make something and get excited because it seems like it has come out better than ever? Unfortunately, that was this case here.

There's a blizzard going on here, the cable was out, so I couldn't watch the Patriots, which was driving me crazy, but I had the radio on, and figured I might as well cook, and decided to make my favorite chicken stew. I'd used a yummy little chardonnay in it, and let the onions really carmelize up, so it smelled amazing. And then I decided to add a dash of salt before putting it in the oven.

Big mistake. I shook the can of sea salt over the top, meaning to barely sprinkle it, when in an instant half the container had fallen into the soup and the lid of the salt can was on the stove. It had flown off, and at least 2 cups of sea salt landed in my stew! What to do??? I quickly started scooping it out, but it was like quicksand, and had already melted into the broth at the bottom. I finally decided to just strain it all, rinse it, throw it back into the pan with more wine, broth, and water, and hope that I got the salt washed off. I tasted a mushroom though, and it was like it had been steeped in the ocean, nasty. It's in the oven now, and I'm just hoping it might be edible in a few hours. So sad.

Has this ever happened to you? And if so, were you able to salvage it? Should I have done anything else?

thx,

Pam

Edited January 24, 2005 by pam claughton (log)

[Maison Rustique]

Add bunches of potatoes. They'll soak it up and you can either leave them in the stew or take them out.

[Fat Guy]

My suggestion would be to stop cooking now. But what you have in the fridge, make another batch, with no salt, and combine the two to finish. This is the only way I have ever managed to salvage an oversalted soup or stew.

[pam claughton]

Add bunches of potatoes. They'll soak it up and you can either leave them in the stew or take them out.

←

Deb,

Thank you! That's good to know, I have lots of baby yukon golds in there, so hopefully they'll absorb the salt. I don't mind if my potatoes are salty.

:)

edited to fix my typos!

Edited January 24, 2005 by pam claughton (log)

[FaustianBargain]

I am not sure potatoes really do 'soak' up the excess salt. This, I believe, is a kitchen myth.

The golden rule: You can always add, but you cannot take away.

I doubt if the stew can be saved. Unless you want to multiply the recipe several times over. Start over? There seems to be way too much salt to multiply the recipe. My 2c.

edited to add: Oh Dear! Baby yukon potatoes. NON!! NON!! NON!!

re what Fat Guy's suggestion...if the mushrooms have taken in the excess salt(as have the other veggies, if any), there would be no point 'fixing' it.

Edited January 24, 2005 by FaustianBargain (log)

[culinary bear]

I did similar with ground white pepper once, but it was more easily removed from the surface before it had blended in.

Fat Guy raises a valid point, but really only salvagable if you think you've only oversalted by a factor of two or three. I'd agree with FaustianBargain that this seems not to be the case this time.

I'd also agree that the potato myth is exactly that - potatoes take in water, whether salted or not. adding lots of potatoes removes salted water which you can then remove from the stew by removing the potatoes, and replace with water to bring the stew back up to the same level of liquid before you put the potatoes in and cooked them. Slightly better (althought not much more so) than using a sponge, or pouring some of the liquor off and addding water.

I'd be tempted to put this down to experience and start over; you've learned a valuable lesson the hard way, which often turns out to be the effective way to learn it. Pour salt into your hand first, in the same way that it's good practise to crack eggs into a bowl one by one before adding them to a recipe - one bad egg and your dish is ruined.

[pam claughton]

I did similar with ground white pepper once, but it was more easily removed from the surface before it had blended in.

Fat Guy raises a valid point, but really only salvagable if you think you've only oversalted by a factor of two or three.  I'd agree with FaustianBargain that this seems not to be the case this time.

I'd also agree that the potato myth is exactly that - potatoes take in water, whether salted or not.  adding lots of potatoes removes salted water which you can then remove from the stew by removing the potatoes, and replace with water to bring the stew back up to the same level of liquid before you put the potatoes in and cooked them.  Slightly better (althought not much more so) than using a sponge, or pouring some of the liquor off and addding water.

I'd be tempted to put this down to experience and start over; you've learned a valuable lesson the hard way, which often turns out to be the effective way to learn it.  Pour salt into your hand first, in the same way that it's good practise to crack eggs into a bowl one by one before adding them to a recipe - one bad egg and your dish is ruined.

←

Yes, this is exactly the lesson I have learned! Thank you. I will NEVER add salt this way again, always into the hand first.

I also suspect that my soup will be heading into the garbage.

Oh well, at least the cable came back on, so now I can watch the Patriots!

:)

[pam claughton]

Update.

I saved it! After it came out of the oven, the broth was still too salty, so I drained it again, and let the veggies and everything sit in the strainer while I sauteed an onion in butter, added a little flour, then when it was brown, added white wine, let that cook off, then more chicken broth, water and everything else, and it is now edible. Still, a little saltier than usual,but not bad.

Pam

[Chris Amirault]

We need to find out about this potato/salt theory, though. I just went through my McGees and didn't find anything about it. Does anyone have a good reference for this sort of question?

[FaustianBargain]

We need to find out about this potato/salt theory, though. I just went through my McGees and didn't find anything about it. Does anyone have a good reference for this sort of question?

←

I forget the author's name..(xxx Wolke, maybe?). What Einstein told his cook, iirc.

Edited to add: Yup. What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained by Robert.L.Wolke. Thats where I read about this.

Edited January 24, 2005 by FaustianBargain (log)

[snowangel]

Should I have done anything else?

thx,

Pam

←

The only thing I would have done different (after several disasters like this) is never just dump anything from a container (unless you intend to use the entire container) into a vat of food. Put it in your hand, or a spoon, or a bowl.

You could always make a couple more batches, sans salt, and mix them together?

[irodguy]

Potato does soak up salt. A few years ago we had a crawfish boil. We added a lot of spice. Including an large sams size cayenne powder.

The first batch was ok, then we cooked the Potato with the next batch. Totally bland tasted like mushy corn flakes.

The next day I asked my friend who is from New Orleans. He told us to add an entire box of kosher salt and don't cook the "veggies" until you are done cooking the mud bugs.

We did what he suggested and it rocked.

Another point is Indian style Potato dishes. Many of these call for a considerable amount of Salt because the potato "soaks it up"