How To Cut Lemon Flavor From Any Dish

Step 1

You only need a tiny amount of baking soda. ¼ of a teaspoon per 1 cup of liquid.Add too much, and your dish will start to taste like soap, which is probably worse than too lemony. Be REALLY careful.As soon as you add the baking soda to the dish, the reaction starts. You might even see some bubbles. This is a good sign because it means the reaction is working.To make sure the reaction happens evenly across the dish, sprinkle the baking soda over the entire surface rather than just dumping it all in one spot. Stir until the bubbles have subsided and then taste.Baking soda is suitable for a dish with lots of other flavors, but I probably wouldn’t add it to a drink or a thin sauce. There’s too much risk of it changing the taste for the worse.An alternative you can try is calcium carbonate (available on Amazon). This works the same way as baking soda but imparts less flavor. So you can use it without worrying about ruining your dish.

Step 2

If you’ve added too much lemon to a dish, adding something sweet will help counteract the sharp tartness. Sugar and honey are great options. Sugar will work well in hot dishes (so the sugar has a chance to dissolve), while honey will work best in cold dishes.This won’t get rid of the acidity in the dish, and it won’t taste as it would have if you just put less lemon in, but it will still taste delicious. It cuts the perceived acidity (the lemon flavor).One unconventional source of sweetness I like using is caramelized onions. They make a great addition to pasta!

Step 3

Maybe surprisingly, salt will also help to mask too much lemon.Salt dampens the bitterness of lemon by enhancing the sweetness of the other ingredients.Salt and sugar have an additive effect, so you can also try adding both simultaneously. Take a small bit of sauce out and experiment with it until you find a taste you’re happy with.You can then replicate what you added in the main dish.

Step 4

A good one for a salad or pasta dish is to add some cheese.The fat in the cheese will absorb some of the acidity and give a more rounded flavor to the dish.Parmesan is my cheese of choice, but any will work. Olive oil contains fat, so it will also help balance out too much acidity from a lemon. This is a fantastic option for salads. Butter can also work, as well as creme fraiche, cream, yogurt or sour cream.

Step 5

If you’re working with a sauce or soup, you can dilute the lemon flavor by adding more of the other ingredients. Add more chicken stock, more oil, more water, more of whatever makes up the base of your sauce.This technique has the added benefit of making extra sauce. You can remove the excess and save it for another day. Win-win.This will also work with mayonnaise. Once the emulsion is made, it’s pretty stable. You can add in more oil to cut the lemon, then add water to manage the thickness.Note this will dilute all the other flavors too. You can fix this by adding more of the other herbs and spices you used at the same time as the extra liquid.

Step 6

Adding something starchy is a good option for soups or stews.Potatoes, beans, lentils, and rice all contain starch and will absorb some of the liquid you put them in. This essentially dilutes the mixture.The starch takes away some of the lemon flavor and replaces it with something less strong (but still delicious!).The overall effect is a less tart dish.One downside of this option is you’ll change the texture of your dish. Depending on how many potatoes or how many beans you add, the final dish can get quite thick.To remedy this, add in some more stock or water along with the starch.This option works best if you are still in the process of cooking the dish because it gives the potatoes etc more time to absorb in the liquid. However, you can also add the starch to a finished dish.I found pureeing the potatoes/beans/rice before adding them to a finished dish worked best because it was better at diluting the dish.