When it comes to cooking, there are a few basic steps that can doom your meal to fiasco, including adding excess salt, or overcooking.
For example, deficient salt in food is easily rectified after the meal is prepared, but the opposite is not always possible.
Also, overcooking the meal can add a burnt taste to the food that makes it difficult to change or remove, but fortunately there is always something you can do.
In the following, we will review how to correct a meal that is excessive in salt or has some burning during cooking, without wasting the rest of the ingredients.
Changing the cooking pot to save food
Many ingredients can be salvaged by simply removing the contents of the pot and placing the food back in a clean saucepan or cooking pot, to prevent overcooking and food burning.
It's important to avoid scraping the burnt pot when doing this step, says My Cooking School.
It is also possible that you will lose a good part of your meal in the bottom of the burnt pot.
Once you have a new clean bowl filled with food, you can taste it and add or change things up as necessary to correct the taste.
Add seasoning to burnt food
If changing the cooking pot has left you with a burnt smell or taste in your meal, this can often be remedied by playing with the ingredients a bit.
One of the things that can help you with this successfully is adding more spices or basic ingredients to the food.
For example, if you are saving a meal from vegetable "stew", adding some spices and vegetables to it may have the effect of dispelling the burning taste almost completely.
Adding more spices or basic ingredients to food may remove the burning taste from recipes (Shutterstock)
Cooking potatoes in a burnt meal
Some may find this option strange, but if your plate doesn't already contain potatoes, this could be a great way to get rid of the burnt taste in your food, according to She Knows.
You will need a little time for this option, but the nature of potatoes means that they are able to absorb flavors and aromas, and of course this is the goal most of us look for when burning food.
To do this, just peel a few raw potatoes, put them in the burnt pot, and let them cook completely for about 45 minutes over medium heat.
In the end, you don't necessarily have to eat those potatoes, they are only there as a way to absorb the taste of the burn, and they can be removed and disposed of once you're done.
Add liquids to salty food
In soups, stews, and other liquid recipes, adding a bit of water or another unsalted liquid will dilute the sour taste of your over-salted meal.
However, this may weaken the final taste of what you are making, and you may need to enhance the food in return by adding more ingredients and seasonings.
You can also always use rich liquids to reduce salt in food, for example, tomato juice can be added to liquid meals instead of water, so as not to lose its concentration.
Kindness can cure everything
Creamy ingredients can counteract the saltiness of some foods, and even mask the mild burning taste of your meal entirely.
If you're making a liquid meal like soup, or even a firmer meal like pasta or pastries, adding bechamel or heavy cooking cream will tone down the salty taste, but don't use salty cream.
Sour cream or plain yogurt may also be a better solution for other recipes, and even salt-free cheeses can be used to enhance the creamy layer of a salty or lightly burnt recipe, according to the culinary website Master Class.
Of course, this option is easy with liquid meals, and if the meal is meat or chicken, it is always possible to pour a rich layer of unsalted bechamel or non-sodium cheese on it to hide any unpleasant aftertaste.
Double the amount of food
Adding unsalted ingredients may distribute the salt better and completely neutralize any burnt taste in your food;
Just add more vegetables that are rich in flavor and texture to your meal, such as potatoes, bell peppers, and more.
You can also add ingredients to the finished dish to reduce the saltiness without having to cook again.
For example, in salty or moderately scorched chicken breasts, just remove the traces of salt and burn, then mix them in a bowl of green salad with avocado, seasoning only with a little balsamic vinegar, pomegranate molasses and cumin to taste.
This way, you can hide almost any unwanted trace in the food while avoiding wasting all the ingredients.
Creamy ingredients can counteract the saltiness of some foods and even mask the mild burning taste of your entire meal (pixels).
Simply... peel off the burn marks
If your burnt plate isn't liquid or correctable with any of the above options, this option may be right for you, in which you'll salvage any portion of food that hasn't come close to burning yet by chopping, according to It's Gone Wrong.
Some may say this will leave you with a spoiled meal, however this way you can save on wasting the entire amount of food, just be careful to ensure that you do not leave any burnt residue that may ruin the taste of the whole meal;
Take a sharp knife and fork, then trim the food and cut off all the burnt parts.
In the end, you can always use a few tricks to make your plate final before serving.