Salty soup - help me fix it!

[milkmoustache]

Just tasted my soup, which has bacon, kale, carrot, cannellini bean and potato in it. I used some stock left over from a gammon joint, and it's really salty. What can I do? I have heard of adding a raw potato, but will that help at all? There's a massive pot of it!

Microwave a potato and use the soft potato to lessen the saltiness (sp?)

Add more water. Next time being your Gannon to the book then chick the first batch of water, then use this second batch for soup.

Bloody spell checker - you get the drift!

So do I cook the potato, submerge it in the soup (for how long?) and then get rid of it? Sounds suspiciously easy, does it really work?
But it will teach me to steer clear of gammon stock...

Yes, potato is the thing. It will absorb the salt and then you chuck it.

Good tip. I also need a tip for getting burnt taste out of food when you forget your bolognaise is on the stove and it bets a burnt bottom.

Original the trick is not to stir the burnt stuff in, just ladle the top layer of sauce into a clean pan. Then dispose of the evidence

Remove some of the liquid (say a third) with a ladle, then add a similar amount of boiling water, simmer for a short while to amalgamate.

Throw in peeled, raw potatoes and remove them when they're cooked.

And dispose of the pan! Sadly there is nothing that can rescue burnt cheese sauce.

Rhubarb can rescue a burnt pan - as long as you don't let it burn. Then you need serious amounts of elbow grease (voice of experience).

Biological washing powder will save a burnt pan

The raw potato trick does nothing in my experience.

I would try and increase the volume of soup you have to counteract it. AddING water won't do anything as it will first dilute it, but then when you reduce it you will be left with the same amount of salt and liquid as before. Acidity such as lemon can sometimes help slightly but really the only way is to increase the amount of soup.

For example, if it was tomato based I would add a tin of tomatoes and simmer for a while, probably with some puree as well. Then you would have more soup but with the same amount of salt, therefore rescuing it. In your case, I would add a mix of water and roughly blended beans or even potato.

For the burnt pan, do as PP suggest and don't agitate the contents of the pan at all, just pour into a new pan leaving all the burnt residue behind. If the pan doesn't have a non stick coating, this can then be fairly easily removed with those wire scouring balls after soaking.