Today’s Food section included a nice little picture of Morton’s Salt along with the oft-suggested tip that over-salted soups and sauces can be remedied by adding a potato. I was at a client’s house when I saw the paper, and I really wish I had access to a computer so I could post to my blog right then.
Alas, I had to wait until I got home, but it took me 2 seconds to find what I was looking for–something (or someone) that has refuted this. I’m sure the Chronicle will get emails/letters from people saying the same thing as me, but I get to do it here first, so…HA!
From the Washington Post: Can You Save a Salty Soup?
The writer of this article measured the conductivity of the water after soaking sliced potatoes in three pots of 1 quart of water: one with no salt, one with 1 teaspoon of salt, and one with 1 tablespoon of salt. He also had his wife do a blind potato taste-test:
Sure enough, the potato simmered in plain water was bland, the potato simmered in the one-teaspoon-per-quart water was salty, and the potato simmered in the one-tablespoon-per-quart water was much saltier. But does this mean that the potato really removed salt from the “soups?”
No. All it means is that the potatoes soaked up some salt water; they didn’t selectively extract salt out of the water. Would you be surprised if a sponge placed in salt water came out tasting salty? Of course not. But the concentration of salt in the water — the amount of salt per quart — would not be affected.
The article contains the more scientific results of conductivity.
A second article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered several kitchen myths including the potato one.:
Addressing a packed lecture hall Friday in the chemistry building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wolke swiftly dispelled several science myths in the kitchen -including the belief that a potato will somehow soak up salt from a liquid.
“To a chemist that doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Potatoes don’t have any salt-attracting properties.”
To prove it, he conducted an experiment: Two mock soups, with two distinct levels of saltiness, were measured for their level of salt before and after simmering with a potato. The levels were nearly identical (in fact, they were a tiny bit saltier after the potato).
Of course the Chronicle did protect itself by including the suggestion to remove half of the ingredients and replace them with new ones. I think that’s probably the only way to fix it!