Counteracting salt

[mdbuschsr]

I made the intentional mistake of purchasing a cheapo' store brand velveeta style cheese block for making quick and easy cheese sauce. Turns out the salt content of said store brand brick-o-cheese seems to be much higher than velveeta brand. So, I have this GIGANTIC block of virtually useless cheese.

Any thoughts on how to reduce the salt?

 

[Selkie]

Unfortunately, salt is one of those items that once a dish or product is over salted it can't be undone, only diluted. In this case, with your "cheapo" cheese product, it's nearly impossible to dilute and not worth thinning it out with more costly cheese. At least it's not an expensive lesson learned.

 

[mdbuschsr]

So I threw a blob of honey at it, and then I dropped in some white balsamic vinegar. It didn't change the flavor too drastically, but it obviously did change it. The salt taste was greatly diminished, and with all of the other stuff I added it was still OK.

 

[Claire]

In spite of hearing many ways of "diluting" an over salty dish, the only way I know of really doing it is making up a second batch of whatever it is without salt. In other words I agree with Selkie. The only thing I can imagine using it for would be to make a high starch dish, and not salting the (pasta, rice, potatoes, etc) at all, and maybe maybe you might come out ok. But at some point you have to give up the ghost and chalk a financial loss up to experience. Wasting other food to rescue this bad buy isn't a savings in the long run. Another possibility is to throw a party, throw it in a crock pot with a no/low salt salsa, serve up no/low salt tortilla chips, and call it chile con queso. Throw or give away any leftovers.

 

[Kathleen]

My suggestion was going to be to add it to a high starch or to donate it to a soup kitchen. Even with the high salt content, it will likely be used by combining other items to make food for someone who has nothing at all. Broccoli cheese soup or a mac n cheese, maybe.

~Kathleen

 

[Mel!]

Any thoughts on how to reduce the salt?

Put it in soup, so the salt is less concentrated in the overall dish.