Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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anti-salt

Correct over-salty foods
  (+16, -2)(+16, -2)
(+16, -2)
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How many times have you ruined food by adding too much salt? Anti-salt cancels out the effects of salt by adding it in equal measure after the fact e.g. one teaspoon of antisalt cancels the effects of one teaspoon of salt. The antisalt shaker would be mandatory equipment in all restaurants.
ronan, Mar 19 2000

X-traordinary dairy http://www.dairytec.../primary/cornel.htm
Good students will find uses for reverse osmosis technology [reensure, Mar 19 2000]

[Mar 19 2000] to today http://images.amazo...es/P/B000003JA5.jpg
[normzone, Apr 06 2010]

[link]






       And how would this work? Bind the ions somehow? Too bad the sodium itself will remain (unless you vaporize it or something), so even if it doesn't taste salty any more, it's still bad for you...
egnor, Mar 19 2000
  

       Yes you can. If you over-salt a soup or stew, add some chopped potatoes. They will absorb some of the salt. At the end of cooking, remove the potatoes and throw them away.
hippo, Mar 20 2000
  

       Dunno -- the potato thing sounds like a kitchen legend to me. Why would potatoes absorb salt preferentially over water? Osmotic considerations say that they would actually leach water rather than absorbing anything. If that's the case, why not just add water and forget the spuds? Time for a double-blind trial (or ask Cecil of the Straight Dope).
rmutt, Mar 25 2000
  

       I didn't say they absorb salt preferentially over water - they just absorb salt, and you can remove them at the end of cooking. If you just add water you end up with watery stew which still contains the same amount of salt as before.
hippo, Mar 27 2000
  

       Dessicants like silica gel absorb water better than potatoes do. But do they absorb the salt with the water? (Probably; as ``Litter Pearls'', they absorb all the components in cat urine just fine.)   

       So, (1) add silica gel to your food, (2) add (non-salty) water to replace the salt water absorbed by the silica, (3) remove the silica gel?   

       I guess (3) might be tricky. What happens if you use silica gel in large (potato-sized) chunks?
egnor, Mar 28 2000
  

       Well, I don't think I want silica gel in my stew at all, not even for a minute or two.There must be some reason it says DO NOT EAT on the package.
scotty1969, May 29 2000
  

       It says DO NOT EAT because silica gel is hygroscopic. You really don't want to put hygroscopic material into your body, do you? But once it's "done", it's no longer hygroscopic.
brouhaha, Jun 16 2000
  

       I've used sugar to remove the salty taste for years (it's a sort of salt antagonist) doesn't remove the sodium though. Shame it can't be made to come out of soluion by converting it to an insoluble salt.
philosphus, Jun 27 2000
  

       Why not just avoid salt in the first place? I wish my nan would when she's cooking.....
MrTheRich, Jun 29 2000
  

       Recapping: The trouble with adding water to the stew to make it less salty is that the stew will become watery; The trouble with adding potatoes or silica gel to absorb salt, and then removing the potatoes or silica gel, is that they will remove ingredients other than water and salt, thus altering the flavour of the stew.   

       The solution then, to counter the effect of the salt, must be to add additional quantities of *all* of the other ingredients. This will neutralise the salt, but have the side effect of producing much more stew than originally required, which in turn, can be solved by inviting me round to dinner.
Lemon, Sep 02 2000
  

       ..or one stores it all in the freezer. Then reheat parts of each stew together. An infinite amount of unsalted stew and a big freezer could so reduce 99.99999999999999...% of salt in the first salty one ! ...and you don't have to invite anyone
jurgo, Sep 06 2000
  

       philosophus: my soul mates agree with the addition of sugar, but brown sugar, mind you.
reensure, Nov 18 2000
  

       You could actually find someway to break the Na-Cl bond and bond the chlorine to something else, leaving the sodium by itself... then add water and you get an explosion! Sweet! Not only that, breaking the Na-Cl bond would produce heat, which would automatically warm your food up!
djhotsauce, Nov 18 2000
  

       Are you saying that the salt and anti-salt would mutually annihilate?
Monkfish, Nov 18 2000
  

       yeah. um-- anti-salt. that's just neat. i'm all for it.
lyse, Nov 19 2000
  

       All you need is a scanner to scan out the NaCl molecule.
Vance, Feb 07 2001
  

       Since salt is potentially harmful I think that it is good that food tastes salty when it contains large amount of salt. If their really were an anti-salt you could probably kill somebody by giving them large amounts of salt and use anti-salt to counterbalance the taste.
dgeiser13, May 28 2001
  

       Oops. Shows how thoroughly I searched before posting my version of this...   

       I see this has been baked for ages. Oh goody.
MrWrong, May 28 2001
  

       Ah, but [dgeiser], this compound removes the salt, rather than just masking the taste. You could conceivably give someone anti- salt poisoning, though, by adding a huge amount of anti-salt, followed by enough salt to make it taste right (think about it and you'll get it).   

       Perhaps a capsule of fake lithium (q.v. fake electrons) could be used to trick the chlorine into releasing its bond to the sodium. Water is added to clear up the sodium. The chlorine, confused at having been tricked, wanders off in a daze, leaving lovely salt-free food.
Macwarrior, Nov 20 2003
  

       I thought about all this decades ago. Too bad the only real answer is... beyond all of us.
halftanked, May 07 2005
  

       salt collecting nanobots?
soundsgreat, Apr 04 2010
  

       Dialysis ? Ion exchange ? Osmosis ?   

       What produces the "salt" taste, the sodium ions or the chloride ions ?
8th of 7, Apr 04 2010
  

       How about a flexible plastic sheet studded liberally with granules of silica gel? Place it on top of the food, leave it for a short while, then lift it off again and spray the food with water.
nineteenthly, Apr 05 2010
  

       //I was going to suggest electrolysis, but that might get a bit dangerous what with sodium and the water//   

       If you think the sodium is dangerous, consider the chlorine gas it would produce.
Bad Jim, Apr 05 2010
  

       will this also nullify the corrosive salt action on my car parts?
AutoMcDonough, Apr 05 2010
  

       Hint: do not dip car parts in your soup
pocmloc, Apr 05 2010
  

       8/7, given that people on salt-restricted diets are able to use potassium chloride as a salt substitute, without any significant difference in flavor, I would have to guess that it's the chloride part that produces the "salty" flavor.
goldbb, Apr 05 2010
  

       Which rock-and-roll band fronted by Alvin Lee does this idea now resemble ?
normzone, Apr 05 2010
  

       Potassium chloride tastes quite different than sodium chloride. It's sort of "cold" tasting, hard to describe exactly. It must be the combination of chloride and sodium ions that gives salt its taste.
nineteenthly, Apr 05 2010
  

       One thing that is *really* worth trying - especially in soups, gravies and sauces in general is to eschew salt in favour of...anchovies.   

       The immediate benefit is that if you add too many anchovies to your dish, it's relatively easy, due to their size to "fish" them out if, inadvertently, you manage to slip a few too many in.   

       Not only do they impart a distinctly savoury flavour, but one that is deeper and richer than in a non-anchovy seasoned dish - it quite possibly contains a bit of this "umami" - the mysterious 5th flavour. Also (and I've not tried this since it's millennia old) I wouldn't mind tasting some Roman "garum" - another condiment that might benefit from reintroduction over salt.
zen_tom, Apr 06 2010
  

       //Dessicants like silica gel absorb water better than potatoes do. But do they absorb the salt with the water? (Probably; as ``Litter Pearls'', they absorb all the components in cat urine just fine.)   

       So, (1) add silica gel to your food, (2) add (non-salty) water to replace the salt water absorbed by the silica, (3) remove the silica gel? //   

       Just remember to keep the one's you've used to absorb cat pee in a different container.
coprocephalous, Apr 06 2010
  

       I don't know [normzone], which rock-and-roll band fronted by Alvin Lee does this idea now resemble ?
Lemon, May 10 2020
  

       [lemon] !
po, May 10 2020
  

       [lemon] - have you been waiting all that time to post that?
wagster, May 10 2020
  

       It's always good to stop before posting a question, and consider if you already know the answer.
pocmloc, May 11 2020
  
      
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