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Article: The Main Ingredient: The rise of baking soda; Decades of sweet science finally led to kitchen chemistry
- Article from:
- Sunday Gazette-Mail
- Article date:
- June 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 Sunday Gazette-Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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robbyers@wvgazette.com
tara@wvgazette.com
SOMETIMES, recipes seem to get a kick out of giving you arbitrary
tasks: "Preheat the oven first. Butter the pan before you do anything
else. Mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Don't over-
mix."
No, the recipe isn't just being ornery. You have to follow these
very precise instructions or one ingredient simply won't work: baking
powder.
Baking powder was a pretty cool invention back in the 1800s.
Before that, cooks - if they weren't using yeast for leavening -
simply mixed sour milk with baking soda.
The acidic milk reacted with the baking soda (a base) to create
carbon dioxide bubbles, which made the baked goods rise.
Unfortunately, ...