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Fixing salty sauces

post #1 of 6
1/3/06 at 7:48am
Thread Starter 
We visited friends up North last week, and one of the nights we had their left-over turkey and gravey. The gravey had been made with the turkey drippings, and, unfortunately, the turkey had been heavily brined. We tried adding milk to cut down on the saltiness, but it seemed to do very little. One friend decided she wanted to try adding some chopped up, canned cranberry sauce. I thought it sounded pretty bad, but figured it couldn't be much worse than what we had in the pan. Now I'm not saying the gravey actually tasted good, but the little bit of sweetness (she didn't add a lot) cut the saltiness way down.

Two questions:
1. Why did that work when the milk didn't? (a Harold McGee-type question)
2. What do you folks do when a sauce gets over-salted?
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post #2 of 6
1/3/06 at 8:36am
I think the milk didn't work, because it is relatively neutral. Sure it has some sweetness and some fattiness, but not really enough. You really would have had to add a lot to, basically, dilute the gravy. Heavy cream might have done a little better as it is sweeter and more fatty. That fat could possibly help the saltiness by coating the tounge, thus slightly deadening the flavors. You could have tried the potato or carrot method by adding raw potato or carrot and allowing it to cook in the gravy. It is supposed to help absorb the salt. I haven't had much luck with this method, personally, but it is a method that I came across frequently while researching my last article here on CT. Usually, I find the best method is just dilute the sauce (gravy) to the point where it is not too salty anymore. That means lots of leftover gravy, but there are lots of uses for it: the base for stews or pot pies just to name a few. BTW, this is a common complaint I hear about brining turkeys. It creates a broth that is too salty to turn into gravy.
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post #3 of 6
1/3/06 at 9:00am
Sweetness and saltiness are two of the basic tastes that we perceive. By increasing the sweetness of the dish you counterbalanced the salt, to some degree. I agree with Pete, the milk was neutral. Bu the canned cranberry sauce added a contrasting, sweet dimension. Much like a wine whose sweetness is balanced by it's acidity or tannin.

Playing the Contrast game will only buy you so much compensation. That's because it doesn't reduce the salt, it merely adds additional flavors.

The only surefire way to rescue a very salty sauce is to add water, but of course, at the expense of the viscosity of the sauce and the diluting of other flavor elements.

Mark
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post #4 of 6
1/3/06 at 1:36pm

Salty Gravy

Like Pete, I've yet to find that anything, save dilution, really works to reduce saltiness, including the often quoted raw potato trick. But as Mark noted contrasting flavors can distract from the saltiness. Sweet will work and acidic can be even better, assuming it's compatible with the final flavor profile. A bit of balsamic vinegar, for example, adds both sweet and acidic notes and makes an interesting gravy addition even if you're not faced with the too salty problem.

In the case of something like a turkey gravy, try diluting with more gravy--that is, make a roux with flour and unsalted butter, add unsalted chicken broth and a few poultry-style herbs and cook to thicken. Then add this bland gravy to the salty gravy.

We've brined a lot of turkeys, but with thorough rinsing inside and out, we've not had the problem of overly salty gravy. We did have this problem with a commercial smoked turkey, however.
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post #5 of 6
1/3/06 at 2:25pm
Potato trick debunked
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post #6 of 6
1/4/06 at 8:58am
While I was delighted to find that Robert Wolke's experiments confirm what I and others have experienced about the futility of using a raw potato to desalt a sauce or soup (see scott123's link above), the article itself also makes fascinating reading for some of the other cooking myths it addresses. Thanks, Scott!

You can link to Wolke's regular column at the Washington Post via
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032500652.html
though registration (free) is required. Wolke is the author of the excellent "What Einstein Told His Cook..." series of books on the science of cooking.

Everyone interested in that subject knows of Harold McGee's and Alton Brown's books (there's also Russ Parson's "How to Read a French Fry), but I'd like to mention one of the earliest such authors whose book did not get the fame I think it deserved. Arthur Grosser, a professor of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal is the author of "The Cookbook Decoder: Or Culinary Alchemy Explained". Published back in 1981 (Beaufort Books), it is a well-written, easy to understand introduction to the science of cooking that includes kitchen top demonstrations that illustrate the principles as well as recipes that incorporate them. It is, I believe, out of print, but may be available through libraries and used book sellers. I won't part with my copy!
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