How To Get Rid Of Burnt Taste In Sauce: Answered

Last Updated on September 13, 2024 by Shari Mason

Ignoring the sauce and letting it cook on high heat without constantly stirring can make it burn.

And now, you end up asking – how to get rid of the burnt taste in the sauce. Let’s see some ways to salvage the situation. 

6 Effective Ways To Remove Burnt Taste In Sauce

1. Transfer To Another Pot & Add Lemon Juice

In most cases, the burnt taste and smell are from the pot you use for cooking. You can scoop out the middle part of the sauce that is still safe from the burnt flavors and put it in another clean pot. 

But you would not want to scrape the sides and bottom of the pot because you will bring undesirable burnt flavors to your new pot. Add an acidic ingredient like lemon juice to balance the burnt flavor.

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2. Add in Some Butter 

A few tablespoons of butter can make a sauce rich and smooth. It contains so much fat that it can balance the acid of other ingredients like onions and tomatoes [1]. 

Butter works well with a tomato-based sauce and gravy, as it helps enhance their flavors. Start by adding one tablespoon at a time and let it melt until the butter can mask the burnt taste in your sauce.

You can use peanut butter or regular butter.

Read:

• What Does It Mean When A Sauce Breaks?
• How To Get Rid Of Freezer Burn Taste?
• How To Get Rid Of Gamey Taste In Lamb?

3. Raw Potatoes May Help

Another tip is to peel and cut some potatoes, toss them into the pot and gently simmer [2].

Potatoes would be able to absorb the scorched flavors and smells of the sauce, but you have to have extra time and patience here. 

This method may take you an additional ten to forty minutes in your cooking time, but it may save your burnt sauce.

Remove the potatoes once they soften, then tweak the recipe and readjust your seasonings.

Read: How To Get Rid Of Fishy Taste In Shrimp?

4. Sprinkle Some Sugar

Sprinkling some sugar works best if you’re making a sweet sauce. After removing the burnt portions, add half a teaspoon and add more until the flavor changes. 

“If you have them on hand, you can also blend in new, sweeter ingredients such as yellow or orange tomatoes or sweet peppers.”

– Serena Poon, Certified Nutritionist, and Celebrity Chef.

Sweeteners can cover the burnt taste, but you have to go easy on adding them to your sauce.

5. Add Balsamic Vinegar

For a light burnt taste, you can tweak the ingredients a bit. You can go with different kinds of vinegar, like red or white wine, cider, and balsamic. 

It depends on what will fit your sauce recipe the best. For instance, balsamic vinegar has a rich, complex sweetness that adds another depth of flavor to your spaghetti sauce. 

It is also used to enhance marinades and salad dressings. But just like sugar, it should be added sparingly until it covers the burnt flavors.

6. Add Fats

Lastly, you can add fats to a burnt sauce if you have anything available in your kitchen. Various dairy products could cover the burnt odor and taste, like half and half. 

You also have some options from the dairy-free section, like coconut cream. But most of the time, this method only works when making curries or gravies. 

These ingredients might change the sauce’s color and texture, so you must be careful when mixing them.

Tips & Tricks When Dealing With Burnt Taste In Sauce 

• Transfer the sauce to a clean pot if it is slightly burnt.
• Scoop the middle and salvageable portion of the sauce using a spoon and avoid scraping the first pot. 
• Add more sauce. Dilute the salvaged part of your sauce and add more ingredients to cover the burnt flavors.
• You can also incorporate other ingredients like vinegar, sweeteners, and fats.

FAQs

In Summary

The best way to deal with a burnt sauce is to prevent it from ending that way. However, sometimes we get distracted for a few moments and make a burnt sauce.

Fortunately, we can still salvage the slightly burnt ones by adding some sweeteners, kinds of vinegar, or fats. We can also transfer the burnt sauce to a new pot and leave the burnt portions behind. 

But for some extreme cases, it would be best to throw the sauce away and make a new batch. 

References:

1. https://www.rd.com/article/add-butter-to-pasta-sauce/ 
2. https://www.marthastewart.com/264222/keeping-cut-potatoes-in-water