- English translation
Food short on salt can still be fixed; food with too much salt gets thrown out.
- Literal wording
The unsalted gets mended, and the salty gets poured out.
- Meaning and lesson
In its plain sense, the saying compares two kitchen mistakes. A bland dish with too little salt can be treated and remedied with a bit more, but a dish that has been oversalted cannot be corrected and ends up poured out and discarded.
The contrast rests on an asymmetry in seasoning. Missing salt can always be supplied afterward, but salt already stirred in cannot be drawn back out. Blandness is therefore a flaw the cook can remedy, while heavy saltiness leaves no option except throwing the food away.
- When it is used
Fits a cooking situation, such as deciding how much salt to add or correcting a bland dish. It reminds the cook that undersalting can still be repaired, whereas oversalting cannot.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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