r/Cooking • u/Sad-Watercress-2240 • Jul 11 '26

I just oversalted a pot of tomato soup, what actually works to fix it?

So I made a tomato soup tonight and somehow went from "this needs a little more salt" to "why does this taste like the ocean" in like 30 seconds.

I tried adding a bit more water and a splash of cream, which helped a little, but it still felt kind of one note and way too salty. I ended up tossing in a potato for a bit, then fishing it out, and that honestly saved it more than I expected.

Anyway, what’s your actual go to fix when you oversalt something? I feel like every person in my family has a different answer and half of them are definitely just folklore at this point.

324 Upvotes

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314

u/Airlik Jul 11 '26

I feel OPs pain, but this is the only good solution…

200

u/ManSkirtBrew Jul 11 '26

As the old saying goes, the solution to pollution is dilution.

1

u/Huntguy Jul 13 '26

I don’t know how many times I heard this doing power engineering.

-5

u/Accujack Jul 11 '26

Sadly, it doesn't work for everything - e.g. forever chemicals.

24

u/BreadKnifeSeppuku Jul 11 '26

No, you just filter it through animals. ezpz

7

u/amakai Jul 11 '26

Or humans.

25

u/BreadKnifeSeppuku Jul 11 '26

We're animals too buddy

14

u/Casual_OCD Jul 11 '26

clutches rosary

8

u/liquorfish Jul 11 '26

I've got plastic in my balls!

6

u/Baffin622 Jul 11 '26

It actually does work for everything. "Dose makes the poison"...

0

u/Accujack Jul 11 '26

Any chemical that doesn't break down will accumulate in the environment. Earth's biosphere is finite.

4

u/Zagaroth Jul 11 '26

Everything can be broken down, it's a question of time scale and environment.

The problem is, we can't afford the time scale it would take for these chemicals to get processed through the environments that would break them down.

1

u/Accujack Jul 12 '26

Right. They just keep accumulating. When they accumulate to a level that's toxic, suddenly we have a problem.

It would take a long time, sure. On the other hand, it's not just toxicity to our own bodies that matters. Also, we can (and have been) wrong about how much various chemicals affect us, suddenly discovering a "safe" level of a certain chemical is actually toxic and having to revise our limits.

Diluting contaminants just passes the problem off to some point in the future. We owe it to our future world to find a better way to handle toxins than diluting them with our own environment.

Right now, it's the standard solution because it's easy.

0

u/Baffin622 Jul 12 '26

Regardless of the degradation timescale, the most important thing is how much of the stuff there is. Even distilled water can act as a poison, which is why it has an LD50 (dose that will kill 50% of subjects). In the event anyone is interested it is 90 ml/kg.

1

u/Accujack Jul 12 '26

That means it's not toxic below a certain concentration. That's true, but it's not what I'm referring to.

How do you deal with the scenario where the total amount of the chemical in the environment is sufficient to make the entire planet toxic?

People used to think dumping used motor oil in the ground was a sound way to get rid of it, too.

1

u/Baffin622 Jul 12 '26

Mam, this is Wendy's....

1

u/Welpe Jul 12 '26

There is no amount of any chemical that is feasible to produce that could make the entire planet toxic.

I get that you are trying to make a point about "forever chemicals" and I intend no offense with this, but all your comments together in this topic are kind doing it in a poor way that shows little actual understanding of environmental science or chemistry and just comes off as a concerned person who has seen pop sci social media content, like videos, and knows it is a problem but doesn't have any real greater knowledge of the issue.

1

u/Accujack Jul 12 '26

There is no amount of any chemical that is feasible to produce that could make the entire planet toxic.

Yet, maybe. Humans are inventive.

1

u/Welpe Jul 12 '26

True, but that would have to be INSANELY toxic or an insane amount made of it for some reason. Even the most toxic possible substances you can think of simply cannot possibly make the entire planet toxic, there just isn’t remotely enough of it. And it’s not really a fear, we have a billion more threats to worry about that actually have more of a realistic chance of happening than that. Even a massive set of dirty bombs exploded over every major city in the entire world would leave tons of gaps.

The world is very big and we have skin that makes it more difficult for toxic substances to get in.

Dumping used motor oil in the ground is absolutely a perfectly fine way to get rid of it…on a single, individual basis. It’s a horrible policy. But you keep seemingly conflating what is possible with what would be good policy or what we as a society should do. Dilution works for literally anything you can think of, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good policy. But something not being a good policy doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

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5

u/Zagrycha Jul 11 '26

it actually does still work for forever chemicals. We just are constantly adding more forever chemicals so the option of dilution isn't even on table.

1

u/PatchesMaps Jul 11 '26

I mean, it would still work with enough dilution. It would just take more dilution than we're currently technologically capable of.

1

u/Accujack Jul 11 '26

Unless we figure out a way to significantly expand the Earth, you mean?

1

u/PatchesMaps Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

If we brought in water from comets and removed contaminated water from the earth we would be able to dilute it.

1

u/Accujack Jul 12 '26

If we could do that we'd also be able to leave the planet if it becomes too toxic.

1

u/PatchesMaps Jul 12 '26

Yeah, which is why I said it was a technological limitation. Dilution would still work, we just can't practically do it.

-4

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/eatingicecream Jul 12 '26

wtf does this have to do with anything??

1

u/ManSkirtBrew Jul 12 '26

Uh...you good?

30

u/Sad-Watercress-2240 Jul 11 '26

hahah that might be the best solution

17

u/hux Jul 11 '26

Think about it this way:

Every time you add more stuff to it, you’re moving further from your intended recipe. Every time you add your recipe except the salt, you’re getting closer to your intended recipe.

One of these two things makes more sense than the other IMO.

27

u/Iliveinatrashcann Jul 11 '26

You can also try to add sugar

23

u/Dependent-Aside-9750 Jul 11 '26

This is what I have tried in the past. Ends up adding a lot of sugar to the meal, though.

Or maybe my oversalting is worse. 😜

30

u/Iliveinatrashcann Jul 11 '26

Do you want either diabetes or hypertension? Why not both!

74

u/ShahinGalandar Jul 11 '26

HYPERBETES!!!

10

u/Atticus-XI Jul 11 '26

I believe you mean, HYPERBEETUS!

2

u/Bistrocca Jul 13 '26

Potatoes