Have you ever gotten into a situation where, in your overzealousness to make the dish you’re cooking more flavorful, you kept putting in different spices and seasonings, only to discover that you have overseasoned your dish?
It happens to the best of us. It’s the kind of culinary emergency that seems to have no solution whatsoever. Fortunately, there are actually some things you can do to salvage and overseasoned dish.
Dilute the dish
This is the most common way of fixing an overseasoned dish. If the flavor of the dish you’re cooking becomes too overpowering, adding a few tablespoons of water can help dilute the strong flavor. Remember to pay attention to the dish after you’ve done this because you’ve boiled down the sauce then it will become overpowering again.
Add sugar or salt, depending on the dish
Adding sugar or salt can counterbalance the flavor that you’re trying to control. For example, if a dish is too salty, a little sugar could make the dish more workable and palatable. This solution also works well if you’ve become too overzealous with lemons and your dish becomes too sour or lemony in taste. On the other hand, if your dish or sauce is too sweet, putting in some salt can help in balancing all of the flavors.
Put a whole potato in the dish
This is a great solution when you’re cooking a stew and you’ve put way too much salt in it. The potato will help absorb the salts in the dish, easing the level of saltiness in the stew. This is also the same quick fix you can do if you find that the gravy you’re preparing is too salty. The whole potato solution is also effective when trying to control an over-spicy dish. In all of these cases, the potato will act as a sponge, absorbing the excess spiciness or saltiness in the dish.
Use a lemon
Depending on the kind of dish that is being cooked, you can help tame down a dish that is too salty or spicy by adding in some lemon juice. Be sparing when putting in the juice because the lemon flavor can also overpower a dish if used too much. Taste the dish immediately after you’ve put the juice in.
Use a sprig of parsley
Garlic is wonderful ingredient and there are some people who love a dish that has a strong garlic flavor. But if you think that you’ve gone overboard with the garlicky taste you can solve your problem by putting in a sprig of parsley into the dish. The parsley’s fresh flavor is the perfect ingredient to help neutralize the strong flavor of garlic.
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