Sorry, But This Age-Old Hack Probably Won't Fix Your Salty Soup

It happens to the very best of us: You spend hours laboring over some homemade tom kha gai or 3-ingredient tomato soup, and you take that long-awaited first taste. Every curse under the sun flies from your lips when you come to the tragic realization ... it's too salty! Based on long-held folk wisdom, it might occur to you to drop raw potato into your soup to try and "soak up" some of the salt. Unfortunately, however, this trick may or may not work. 

If there's an overabundance of salt in your soup, the only thing that will work is removing some of it. Simmering a potato in your soup is often cited as a way of absorbing salt. However, some who have actually experimented with this "hack" report that, not only does soup remain salty after boiling a potato in it, but you might muddy your dish via starch left behind from the spuds. On the other hand, some very credible sources claim that potatoes are little sponges for liquid, and putting enough of them in your pot will slurp up some of that sodium-rich water, especially when combined with other hacks (more on that in a moment). 

So, to potato, or not to potato? It doesn't appear to be the most reliable method on its own, but luckily, there are other useful workarounds for salty soup that you can utilize. With the right combination of methods, you won't have to dump a whole stockpot down the drain or bet your dinner on the success of the potato method! 

Canned soup can be salty, but the homemade stuff shouldn't taste of pure sodium. There are home chefs who claim that adding more fillings (rice, veggies, or whatever else is in your soup for body) or even fat like heavy cream can cover up the taste of too much salt. If your soup is just a little bit too salty, some also suggest a bit of acid as a great way to mask it. You might even try out a few chunks of potato in an attempt to clean up a minor salt spill, assuming you're okay with extra starch. When there's really an overabundance of salt, however, you need to ditch the shortcuts and dilute it. 

Luckily, you can curb salinity in any kind of soup — condensed or scratch-made — by thinning out your base with the liquid of your choice. You'll want to add water, milk, or whatever other liquid is harmonious with your flavors. Adding (unsalted!) liquid to dilute your soup will make the ratio of salt go down. After, you may need to re-thicken your soup or otherwise adjust for consistency. You will also want to re-season your soup, being extremely careful with everything you add in terms of balancing flavors. You can also add more fillers, leaving you with a bigger pot of soup. We love soup, and it freezes and reheats easily, so having extra is rarely a bad thing, in our book. Simply freeze some and use it for weekly meal prep, or share with friends and neighbors.