We’ve all been there: Whether you forgot you already salted a dish and added the salt again or your hand slipped and you just included too much, the result is the same. Your soup, stew, meat, side, or sauce is now too salty. So, how can you fix it so you can still serve the dish? We’re sharing four time-honored ways to bring the balance back—and our best tips to help you season your food properly every time.

How to Neutralize Salt in Food

Try one of these methods for fixing oversalted food:

1. Add condiments. With casseroles, stews, chili, or other similar dishes, you can use condiments like sour cream, avocado, ricotta cheese, and others to fix salty food. The creaminess in these condiments helps to dilute the salt slightly and disperse the salt more evenly on your palate.

2. Add an acid. You can add lemon juice, lime juice, or apple cider vinegar to salty food to help neutralize the saltiness. A tomato product, such as tomato sauce or tomato paste, will also work since tomatoes are acidic.

3. Add dairy. If it will complement the recipe—for example, a cream sauce—you can add more heavy cream, whole milk, or another type of dairy to neutralize the salty flavor in a dish. Dairy contains sugar, which helps to cut down the taste of salt. It coats the inside of your mouth, creating something of a barrier against the salt. Non-dairy milks, such as oat milk or coconut milk, can work similarly.

4. Add raw potatoes. One of the most common ways of fixing overly salty food is to add potatoes. This trick works well for soups, stews, and other similar dishes. Simply add a diced raw potato to the dish—as it cooks, the potato will absorb some of the liquid, including the extra salt.