Q: My husband and I made a batch of homemade sausage for the first time this past weekend, and accidentally oversalted it.
Is there any way we can salvage it? We froze about 10 pounds, and I'd hate to throw it all away, but it's pretty inedible in its current state.
Sent by Jennifer
Editor: Jennifer, our first thought is to use the sausage purely for flavoring other dishes. You could brown it thoroughly, then throw in peppers and tomatoes, and cook the whole thing down into a rich sauce for pasta. You could do something similar, but turn it into a soup base. Then the flavor of the sausage is well-used, but the salt is spread throughout the dish.
Readers, any advice for Jennifer?
Related: Recipe Rescue! What To Do If You Oversalt
(Image: Sarah Rae Trover)

Comments (14)
In chili with lots of beans would be good, because beans can stand up to quite a bit of salt.
I'd use it as a seasoning, like suggested. Probably would be great in soup! Sauces, stews, sausage gravy for biscuits, maybe even for a quiche or frittata if you brown the sausage into small crumbles to distribute the saltiness like a seasoning.
use it with some sort of potato dish, potatoes can take a lot of salt.
braise(?) or simmer in unsalted tomato sauce for a meaty sauce?
Are these sausages stuffed in casings or just ground sausage?
If they're in casings I would experiment on one or two, treating them like one does a country ham. Usually this involves soaking in water for 1-3 days (I would poke some holes in the casings to let the water get in and work), changing the water a few times each day. If your sausages are precooked, try using them and see how salty they are. If they're raw I would boil them to cook them and take out even more salt. After they're boiled throw them on the grill, saute them, whatever you want and see how they taste.
If they're not in casings, you could stuff them into casings, then follow the above suggestion, or just use them as seasoning in soups and such as other commentors have indicated.
I would take them out of their casings, mix in more meat and perhaps more of the seasonings other than salt, and make more sausages. 10 lbs. of meat is a lot to use little by little as a "seasoning" in sauces, chili, or potatoes, don't you think ? And depending on how salty the sausages are, you could just end up ruining more food.
You could even add cooked potato to the actual sausage mix - I have a sausage book with quite a few recipes (most of them look like they're scandanavian or eastern european in origin) that call for adding potato to the sausage itself.
Mmmm.... potato sausage! As a Scandinavian American, I can attest to the deliciousness of that! You could also substitute your sausage for the ham in potet klubb, which are another Scandinavian specialty - basically meaty potato dumplings. Soooo good...
But I'd suggest taking it out of the casings and mixing in more meat, like artfemme11 said. Adding it to soup might actually cook out a lot of the salt, too.
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! I think I'll try a few different things and cross my fingers that one works.
I think the soaking suggestion sounds good. Salt moves from a higher concentration to lower.
Assuming you're using it out of casings- I would just use with equal parts other ground meats, adding some more of the other seasoning as I go. Sausage really is best out of casing anyway, I think.
What about grilled patties with a nice fruit compote?
Woop woop for potato sausage! It's always on my Swedish grandparents' Christmas menu!
Been there done that!! Simmer the sausage in a LARGE pot with a bunch of peeled potatoes - when done cool the sausage - throw out the potatoes -