Baking soda, we all have seen it in action one way or another. For the creative hearts, you probably know it to be a role player in volcano models at the science fair. Those of you clean freaks, like me, have probably been elbow deep in a bathtub with good ole baking soda at least once before. However, the most common use of baking soda is in our food and medicine.
Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), a mild alkaline with a distinctively bitter, salty, sour taste, is created synthetically by combining carbonic and sodium hydroxide. Ore trona is used commercially and nahcolite is naturally occurring.
Some history from madehow.com :
Imported from England, baking soda was first used in America during colonial times, but it was not produced in the United States until 1839. In 1846, Austin Church, a Connecticut physician, and John Dwight, a farmer from Massachusetts, established a factory in New York to manufacture baking soda. Dr. Church's son, John, owned a mill called the Vulcan Spice Mills. Vulcan, the Roman god of forge and fire, was represented by an arm and hammer, and the new baking soda company adopted the arm and hammer logo as its own. Today, the Arm & Hammer brand of baking soda is among the most widely recognized brand names.
Named after Nicolas Leblanc, the French chemist who invented it, the Leblanc process was the earliest means of manufacturing soda ash (Na 2 CO 3 ), from which sodium bicarbonate is made. Sodium chloride (table salt) was heated with sulfuric acid, producing sodium sulfate and hydrochloric acid. The sodium sulfate was then heated with coal and limestone to form sodium carbonate, or soda ash.
In the late 1800s, another method of producing soda ash was devised by Ernest Solvay, a Belgian chemical engineer. The Solvay method was soon adapted in the United States, where it replaced the Leblanc process. In the Solvay process, carbon dioxide and ammonia are passed into a concentrated solution of sodium chloride. Crude sodium bicarbonate precipitates out and is heated to form soda ash, which is then further treated and refined to form sodium bicarbonate of United States Pharnacopoeia (U.S.P.) purity.
Baking soda's shining moment for me is in....you guessed it....baking! It reacts with acid ingredients (cream of tartar, vinegar, lemon, etc) to give off a gas, allowing the baked good to rise. In cooking, it has been used in the past to soften vegetables and tenderize meat. Since it is an alkaline, it tends to react to naturally occurring acids in foods such as Vitamin C and therefore can prevent it's absorption.
All in all, this ingredient is small but mighty.
Curious about all the tricks this little kitchen ingredient can do? Check out the links below for some ideas
Next week: Baking powder (and the secrets it hides). As always, comment with your ingredient curiosities :)
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