Julia Child had a surprisingly simple fix for soup that’s too salty and it involves a raw potato. Here’s how the classic kitchen trick works (and when it helps most).

There’s a particular kind of dread that hits when you taste your soup and immediately know what happened: you salted with confidence, tasted too late, and now the whole pot tastes like the ocean had a heavy hand. It’s the sort of moment that makes even experienced cooks consider dramatic options—dump it, dilute it into oblivion, or pretend it was “meant” to be that way.

Julia Child, thankfully, offered a solution that’s calmer, smarter, and very on-brand for her: use a raw potato to pull some of that salt back out. More specifically, she recommended grating a raw potato directly into the soup, letting it simmer for several minutes, and then straining out the potato—along with the excess salt it’s absorbed.

How the Potato Trick Works
The logic is surprisingly practical. Potatoes are starchy, and starch is absorbent. When you add raw grated potato to a salty broth, those fine shreds act a bit like a sponge—taking in liquid and, with it, some of the salt. Julia’s method is particularly effective because grating increases the potato’s surface area, which helps it work faster than tossing in a whole chunk.