How To Cut Too Much Lemon - 6 Tried & Tested Methods (2024)

Lemon is an excellent addition to almost every dish because it helps brighten dull flavors. But, it’s a strong flavor and it’s easy to go overboard.

I’ve tested several methods of cutting too much lemon flavor in sauces and other dishes. I’ve included quick fixes (so you can fix that sauce RIGHT NOW), plus ways to prevent overdoing the lemon in the future.

To reduce too much lemon flavor in a dish, add baking soda to neutralize the excess acidity. Add ¼ of a teaspoon per 1 cup of liquid. Stir and taste. Other ways to mask too much lemon include adding sugar or honey, adding cheese, or diluting the sauce.

How I tested fixing too much lemon

I made a broccoli and lemon soup and purposefully went overboard on the lemon. I portioned the soup out into smaller equal servings and tested different methods of fixing the soup.

Here are six different ways to cut lemon flavor:

• Using baking soda to neutralize the lemon
• Add something sweet to mask the sourness
• Add salt to counteract the bitterness
• Add some fat (e.g butter) to balance the lemon flavor
• Dilute the lemon flavor
• Add something starchy like some potato to balance the lemon

These techniques will also work when you’re dealing with sauces, stews, salsas, guacamole, gravy, curry, or even lemon-flavored ice cream.

Related: How To Cut Lime Flavor

How to fix a dish with too much lemon

I’ve given estimates of how much to add, but this will vary based on how bad the lemon problem is and how big your dish is.

The best thing to do is to try your chosen method on a small sample of your dish first. Add in your chosen ingredient slowly, tasting after each addition. Note how much you add and then if you like the results, scale this up for your main dish.

Neutralize the acidity with baking soda (or calcium carbonate)

Lemon juice is an acid. Baking soda is a base (alkaline).

Mix them together, and the baking soda will neutralize the lemon juice, taking away the sour flavor and reducing the acidity (pH) of the dish.

This is the only method that actually tackles the problem at its core. The rest of the suggestions just mask the problem.

You only need a tiny amount of baking soda. Add too much, and your dish will start to taste like soap, which is probably worse than too lemony.

Be REALLY careful.

As soon as you add the baking soda to the dish, the reaction starts. You might even see some bubbles. This is a good sign because it means the reaction is working.

To make sure the reaction happens evenly across the dish, sprinkle the baking soda over the entire surface rather than just dumping it all in one spot.

Stir until the bubbles have subsided and then taste.

Baking soda is suitable for a dish with lots of other flavors, but I probably wouldn’t add it to a drink or a thin sauce. There’s too much risk of it changing the taste for the worse.

An alternative you can try is calcium carbonate (available on Amazon). This works in the same way as baking soda but imparts less flavor. So you can use it without worrying about ruining your dish. The added calcium also has some health benefits.

How much to add: ¼ of a teaspoon per 1 cup of liquid.

Related: How Do You Make Chili Less Acidic?

Add something sweet to mask the sourness

If you were looking at a taste wheel, sweet and sour would be opposites.

They don’t cancel each other out but mix together to make a new, more pleasant flavor.

If you’ve added too much lemon to a dish, adding something sweet will help counteract the sharp tartness.

Sugar and honey are great, easy options.

Sugar will work well in hot dishes (so the sugar has a chance to dissolve), while honey is suitable for cold dishes.

They won’t get rid of the acidity in the dish, and it won’t taste as it would have if you just put less lemon in, but it will still taste delicious.

It cuts the perceived acidity (the lemon flavor).

One unconventional source of sweetness I like using is caramelized onions. They make a great addition to pasta!

You can also try adding things like grated carrot, apple, or even raisins.

These high sugar foods will add sweetness to your dish, and if you cut them up small enough they won’t be noticeable.

How much to add: Add half a teaspoon of sugar or honey at a time.

Add some salt to counteract the bitterness

Maybe surprisingly, salt will also help to mask too much lemon.

I spoke about sweet and sour above and how they interact. Saltiness interacts with sourness in a different way but still helps to balance it out. It dampens the bitterness of lemon by enhancing the sweetness of the other ingredients.

Note: Salt and sugar have an additive effect, so you can also try adding both simultaneously.

How much to add: Add a pinch to start with. Then stir and taste the dish before adding more.

Add some fat (cheese/oil/butter) to balance out the lemon

A good one for salads or pasta dishes is to add some cheese.

The fat in the cheese will absorb some of the acidity and give a more rounded flavor to the dish.

Parmesan is my cheese of choice, but any will work (I used cheddar in my experiment).Olive oil contains fat, so it will also help balance out too much acidity from a lemon. This is a fantastic option for salads.Butter can also work, as well as creme fraiche, cream, yogurt, or sour cream.

These ingredients all have quite a distinct flavor of their own, so will change the taste of the dish quite significantly.

They’ll also add more calories, which is something to be aware of if you’re on a health kick.

How much to add: Add your chosen fat a tablespoon at a time to your dish (or a teaspoon at a time for a small portion).

Dilute the sauce to cut the lemon flavor

If you’re working with a sauce or soup, you can dilute the lemon flavor by adding more of the other ingredients.

Add more chicken stock, more oil, more water, more of whatever makes up the base of your sauce.

This technique has the added benefit of making extra sauce. You can remove the excess and save it for another day. Win-win.

One downside of this method is that will dilute all the other flavors too. But you can fix this by adding more of the other herbs and spices you used at the same time as the extra liquid.

Diluting with extra oil is the best way to cut too much lemon flavor in mayonnaise.

You want to avoid adding in extra ingredients because this can mess with the emulsion. Drizzle in extra oil slowly, tasting as you go. You can manage the thickness with some water if needed.

Psst… If the dish ends up too watery or thin, you can simmer it for a while to reduce the liquid again. Or even thicken it with cornstarch if you’re short on time.

How much to add: For small portions, add a tablespoon of extra liquid at a time, or add around a 1/4 of a cup for larger portions.

Add something starchy

Adding something starchy is a good option for soups or stews.

Potatoes, beans, lentils, and rice all contain starch and will absorb some of the liquid you put them in. This essentially dilutes the mixture.

The starch takes away some of the lemon flavor and replaces it with something less strong (but still delicious!) and the overall effect is a less tart dish.

One downside of this option is you’ll change the texture of your dish. Depending on how many potatoes or how many beans you add, the final dish can get quite thick.

To remedy this, add in some more stock or water along with the starch. You’ll probably also need to add some more seasoning to the dish doesn’t end up bland.

This method works best if you cook and puree the starch before adding it, so for example you could add a tablespoon of mashed potatoes. Wait a few minutes for the starch to absorb the flavors and then taste the dish to see if you need to add more.

You can also grate raw potatoes into a hot dish and wait 10 minutes for them to cook and dissolve.

How much to add: Add a tablespoon of your mashed starch and wait a few minutes for the starch to absorb.

How to add lemon to a dish and not overdo it

I could have titled this section ‘how not to make the same mistake again’.

Prevention is key here. If you avoid making the dish too lemony in the first place, you won’t have to google this ever again!

Add less than the recipe suggests starting with

Lemon is a strong flavor and can easily overwhelm a dish. It’s also possible to be oversensitive to lemon, so you taste it more than someone else would.

Same as with chili, a dish could be inedible (too spicy) for one person and perfect for another.

You’ve learned the hard way it’s impossible to take out a flavor once you’ve added too much.

But it’s easy to add more in, so start with less lemon than the dish calls for, and add it in slowly, tasting as you go. This will drastically reduce the risk of you adding too much in and having to conduct a rescue mission.

Top tip: you could even skip the lemon altogether and just serve the dish with fresh lemon on the side. Then people can add it in as they wish.

Use fresh lemons over bottled lemon juice

Over time, lemon juice oxidizes and becomes less flavorsome and more acidic (sour).

Bottled lemon juice is old, oxidized lemon juice. It tastes a lot more sour and bitter than the fresh stuff.

Freshly squeezed lemon juice is going to give you the best flavor while not being too acidic.

If you need to squeeze the lemon ahead of time try not to go over 8 hours. After 8 hours the oxidizing will start to affect the flavor.

Use lemon zest rather than juice

There are two parts of the lemon that can impart flavor: the zest and the juice.

Most people tend to go for the juice because it’s easier (and means less washing up). But actually, the zest (or a mix of zest and juice) is best for most applications.

The zest has a strong lemon flavor without the tartness. The juice is MUCH more acidic.

Next time the recipe calls for some juice, replace some of the juice with zest. You’ll be able to notice the difference.The dish will be lemony, without the sourness that comes with it.