Beautiful baking soda, how I love thee... let me count the ways: cookies, volcanoes, cookies, cleaning abilities, cookies, exfoliator, cookies. Did I mention cookies? Oh, and I'm serious about the exfoliator thing too... create a paste with a little bit of water and rub it on your skin before you shave... serious reduction in razor bumps!
Anyway, it turns out babel fish is not always my friend. Babel fish translated baking soda literally: backensoda... and this translation made since to me because it got the baking powder (backpulver) translation right. And, since I knew the chemical name of baking soda, I figured I was golden (sodium bicarbonate). So there I was, looking at the baking section, finding TONS of backpulver, but no backensoda. I even picked up things that looked like they might possibly be baking soda to see the ingredients, including the carton shown above. Alas, the ingredients read: Natriumhydrogencarbonat. At this point in time, I knew sodium and natrium were the same thing (hence why sodium's symbol is Na), but I was looking for bicarbonat rather than hydrogencarbonat
The most surprising tidbit I learned from this forum pertained to cream of tartar. I've seen lots of pie recipes lately that I've really wanted to try, but a lot of them have meringue, which means I need a strong whisking arm or hand mixer and cream of tartar. By this point in time, I hadn't bothered to look up the translation for cream of tartar since I didn't think I could beat the egg whites properly by hand. But now I've learned that it would pretty much be fruitless to look in the groceries for cream of tartar, except at Christmas time. So if I looked tomorrow I might get lucky, but generally you have to go to the apothecary to find cream of tartar (Weinsteinpulver). You learn something new everyday!
6 comments:
Wonderbal! I've never heard of sitting biscuits out to rise before baking though. Hmm. I'm glad that baking soda isn't seasonal there. I learned recently that it is apparently close to ineffective after 6 months. Who knew?! I'll be replacing mine more frequently now. Good luck finding cream of tartar!
Perhaps when you figure out your travel arrangements and we know that we will definitely be seeing each other, you should send me a list of the cooking items you would like me to bring across the pond...
@ Tabs: I discovered sitting them out on accident when I was making them in Winston-Salem. They rose better when I sat them out (I was cooking a bunch that day, put the biscuits together, and then realized it would be a while before I needed to cook them, so they sat on the stove a bit before I put them in the oven). Reading some comments on the Paula Deen recipe, I found that others let them sit out too, and then learned it had something to do with double acting baking powder.
@ Helen: Can you bring perishables or is that a no-no? I've found most of the items I need except for, of all things, measuring spoons. If I do get to see you (should be purchasing our tickets in the next week), I'd be happy to pay you back for this: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=12949855
My mamaw lets hers sit out but I always thought it was b/c she had the bread ready ahead of time. Hmmm. Maybe she had a dual purpose. That's good to know. I had noticed dual action on the baking powder label and never had any idea what that meant.
I love that you included volcanoes in your "uses of baking soda" list! hehe Also, very cool about Na= natrium. I don't think I knew that, but I also think I've repressed at least half of what I "learned" in chemistry.
@ Megan: Natrium is technically Latin, not German. I have to admit I didn't remember until I saw it in writing on the back of the bag of cleaning soda. I also wasn't sure if Natrium was the exact Latin or a derivative, but I just looked it up, and it's Latin! :)
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