It’s inevitable. Sometimes when you’re cooking, things can go way off-track in terms of flavor. It could get so far from what you’re hoping to achieve that sometimes, it looks like the only option is to pitch it and start from scratch.

However, throwing things out is totally the last resort. There are several quick fixes for common issues that may arise while you’re cooking:

If your food is too salty, there are a few different solutions to try.

If you’re making a soup which is too salty, you can:

• Dilute your soup with more water.
• Add dairy to your soup to counteract the saltiness.
• Mix in some white rice, which will both thicken your soup and absorb the saltiness.

If you’re cooking something that is not soupy in nature, there are some more general solutions to tackle your saltiness issue:

• Add a bit of sugar to balance out the salt.
• Squeeze something acidic such as a lemon slice or a touch of vinegar to mask the saltiness.
• You can also add potatoes to your food to absorb saltiness (but this is considered less effective).

If you added too much acid trying to counteract the saltiness or if your food is too acidic on its own, there are two ways to fix this:

• Scoop small amounts of baking soda into the dish as it will counteract the acidity. (Make sure you don’t add too much so that you don’t overwhelm it with baking soda.)
• You can add a bit of sugar to balance out the flavor of the acidity. (Again, be careful with how much you add – taste test it in between sprinkles of it to see if you need more.)

If you accidentally added too much spice to your dish, don’t worry! There are some perfectly viable ways to make the spice tolerable for your tongue:

• Add something acidic (like vinegar or citrus juice).
• Add some dairy to cool off the fiery spice.
• Add some sugar to balance out the spiciness.

Lastly, while burning something you’ve worked hard on putting together tends to be slightly devastating, chances are, part of the food is still salvageable.

Salvaging the food always includes removing the part that was effected:

• For cookies or biscuits, take a cheese grater or zester and rub it on the burnt parts to remove them.
• For cakes or other soft baked goods, slice off the burnt parts.
• If you have a couple of pieces of burnt toast, rub the burnt sides against each other.
• If you have burnt meat, use a vegetable peeler to remove the burnt parts as you would a vegetable.

Armed with these new tips on how you salvage your food, nothing can stop you now!

Happy cooking!