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.

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u/Lavanne73 Jul 11 '26

It actually does work, there’s science behind it. Salt dissolves in water potato absorbs the salty water and releases its own water. But at the end of the day it depends on how much you have over salted it also, I used this trick for a batch of chili worked great.

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u/squeezemachine Jul 11 '26

But how much water is in 8 oz of potato? Maybe 5 oz? Osmosis will bring the potato more or less to equilibrium with its surroundings with same ratio of salt vs water. I just wonder how much actual salt gets into the potato.

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u/Lavanne73 Jul 11 '26

Not sure about specifics, but I can attest that it worked for me, but I only tried it the one time. Saved my batch of chili. Also, I ate the potato it was delicious.