Cooking with salt and other seasonings can be dangerous. Too much of certain seasonings can lead to health problems. Using the wrong amounts or eyeballing an amount can lead to over-salted, over-spiced and inedible food. Frustrated cooks may believe the only option to the disaster is to throw the food away. To avoid being wasteful of time and resources, here are a few tips and tricks to fix those over-seasoned dishes from food writers Peggy Trowbridge Fillipone (http://homecooking.about.com) and Andrea Lynn (http://www.seriouseats.com).
• Add unsalted liquid, like water or broth, to dilute the over-seasoned dish or add an unpeeled and quartered potato to the dish for 15 minutes. Remove the potato. This trick will not work on heavily salted foods, according to Fillipone’s “Salt Cooking Tips and Hints.”
• Add brown sugar or vinegar to over-seasoned sauces, according to taste. Add only a little at a time and taste as you add.
• Dairy products such as cream, milk or yogurt calms down heat.
• Adding a thin paste of unsalted cooked white-rice puree with unsalted water or broth can help over-salted soups or stews.
• Avoid adding a lot of salt to stews or soups that simmer for a long time. The salty flavor intensifies as the liquid reduces.
• Don’t double the salt measurements in desserts or bread recipes when doubling the other ingredients.
• Sparingly add lemon juice, orange juice or any other acidic liquid to the dish, depending on its taste, to tone down hot flavors.
• Double the measurements of the main ingredients to fix a spice overload, advises Linda Larsen, author of several cookbooks. Do not add extra spices to compensate.
Sources: http://busycooks.about.com
http://homecooking.about.com
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.