How much salt do potatoes absorb when being boiled?
My mashed potatoes are always bland. I’ve googled recipes and a lot of them say to put a teaspoon or so of salt in the water to boil them. I’m a bit worried about using so much salt.
What I’d like to know is how much of that salt actually goes into the food, and how much is left in the water?
Thanks. 🙂
Best Answer
From the linked question on pasta absorption, When cooking pasta in salted water how much of the salt is absorbed?, which basically says "the more salt you put in, the more will be absorbed".
However, one thing I've always thought to be true is that if you don't put enough in when cooking, you seem to have to add a whole lot more afterwards to lift the flavour to desired levels than you would have if you'd added it whilst cooking.
So the overall cooked vs table-added levels may in fact be lower if you add it early.
As it's cropped up in another answer - if you boil them with no salt whatsoever, the smell & flavour are really quite different & no amount of salt added after mashing can properly rescue them.
I can smell when someone's forgotten to salt boiling potatoes. My partner at one time wanted to believe it was because I can smell salt… erm, no. I don't think anyone can smell salt, but the potatoes smell completely different.
Late edit: The accepted answer on Ways to learn to season food correctly? would appear to agree with the statement that salting early is different to salting late - but I'd love to see some really solid evidence as to actually how that affects something as simple as boiled potatoes. All I have right now is 30 years of just knowing it makes a difference.
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Quick Answer about "How much salt do potatoes absorb when being boiled?"
This effect was most striking when comparing new and old potatoes cooked with 4g salt / kg raw potato. New potatoes took up approximately one third of the sodium (16mg Na/100g) when compared with old potatoes (54mg Na/100g).How much salt do boiled potatoes absorb?
You don't season the water. Add about one tablespoon of salt for every pound of potatoes. When it's time to season the potatoes in the end, take a light hand. The mashed taters won't need nearly as much salt now that they were cooked in salty water.Do boiled potatoes absorb salt?
Well, potatoes don't pull salt out of anything. They do absorb water, though\u2014and if that water happens to be salty, they'll absorb salty water. But they're not absorbing salt in particular. Potatoes are amazing, but they're not capable of reverse osmosis.Does potato soak up salt?
The theory is that a potato is the perfect vehicle to absorb excess salt. Just throw it into the pot and simmer it for awhile, remove it after it's absorbed some of the salt, and you're left with less-salty soup. No need to add more liquid or other ingredients to help disperse the extra salt.When you boil potatoes add a little salt?
Actually folks, heavily salting the water allows it to boil to a hotter temperature. This in turn cooks the potato's starch more thoroughly, resulting in a more creamy texture. Google 'Syracuse salt potatoes' for more information. It is minuscule at concentrations used for pasta, per wikipedia, less than 1/3 degree F.Syracuse Salt Potatoes - New Potatoes Boiled in a Salt Brine
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Answer 2
How much of the salt from the cooking liquid gets into the potatoes? Not much.
But more importantly, if you're worried about salt content, it's better to just cook the potatoes in unsalted water, and salt the mashed potatoes to your liking when you mash them. There's nothing magical about the salt absorbed during boiling... it'll taste as salty, and be as salty, as salt mixed in during mashing.
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