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Is My Baking Powder Or Baking Soda Still Good?


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Is My Baking Powder Or Baking Soda Still Good?

We all end up having baking soda and baking powder sitting in the pantry. And sometimes you’re not sure exactly how long that box or canister has been around. Before you start baking with it, test it to make sure it’s still good and will do the job.

You don’t want to spend a lot of time and ingredients on a cake, a bread or whatever you’re baking and not have it rise. Testing your baking soda and baking powder to see if they are still good is quick and easy to do. Here’s how.

Testing Baking Powder

Get a glass of hot water and drop a little of the baking powder in the water. If it starts to bubble up, it’ll work just fine in your baking.

Testing Baking Soda

For baking soda, we need an acid to confirm it’s working. As a side note, baking soda will not do much in your baked goods unless there’s also an acid like buttermilk present.

For the is test, pour some vinegar into a small glass, bowl or cup. Spoon a little baking soda in. If the mixture starts forming bubbles, your baking soda is still active.

Hope this helps you determine if your baking soda or baking powder are still good. While expiration dates on containers are helpful, I prefer to do these little tests if I’m not sure the powder or soda are up to the job of making my baked goods rise.

 

if you want to keep your baking powder “good” …… when buying a new pkg… put it in the freezer (in a ziplock bag in case of spills). I don’t use mine much, and its over 2yrs old now and still works great.

You save frustration and $$$

 

 

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Thanks for the tip! I never knew about how to test them.

 

I keep a box of soda in my fridge to absorb odors and after a couple of months I take it out and pour half of it in both sides of my kitchen sink and pour in some vinegar. It really bubbles and freshens the drains especially the garbage disposal side.

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Is My Baking Powder Or Baking Soda Still Good?

We all end up having baking soda and baking powder sitting in the pantry. And sometimes you’re not sure exactly how long that box or canister has been around. Before you start baking with it, test it to make sure it’s still good and will do the job.

You don’t want to spend a lot of time and ingredients on a cake, a bread or whatever you’re baking and not have it rise. Testing your baking soda and baking powder to see if they are still good is quick and easy to do. Here’s how.

Testing Baking Powder

Get a glass of hot water and drop a little of the baking powder in the water. If it starts to bubble up, it’ll work just fine in your baking.

Testing Baking Soda

For baking soda, we need an acid to confirm it’s working. As a side note, baking soda will not do much in your baked goods unless there’s also an acid like buttermilk present.

For the is test, pour some vinegar into a small glass, bowl or cup. Spoon a little baking soda in. If the mixture starts forming bubbles, your baking soda is still active.

Hope this helps you determine if your baking soda or baking powder are still good. While expiration dates on containers are helpful, I prefer to do these little tests if I’m not sure the powder or soda are up to the job of making my baked goods rise.

 

if you want to keep your baking powder “good” …… when buying a new pkg… put it in the freezer (in a ziplock bag in case of spills). I don’t use mine much, and its over 2yrs old now and still works great.

You save frustration and $$$

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the reminder :-) Mine usually doesn't last too long since I bake our own breads/sweets etc. BUT...I do vacuum seal some that we buy in bulk from the Amish, in jars for the pantry.PS...put a coffee filter over the contents so your machine doesn't suck it up into the tube, and don't use oxygen absorbers.

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More on Baking Soda:

 

http://thehealthyhoneys.com/baking-soda-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

 

 

Where does baking soda come from?

Most baking soda in the U.S. comes from Green River Wy. Green River also supplies 1/4 of the world with baking soda. Now that is a lot of baking soda!! The baking soda from Wyoming is mined from trona ore. The trona then goes through a chemical process to create baking soda. It is heated until it turns to soda ash. Then the soda ash is treated with carbon dioxide, and voila!! You have an abundance of chemically created baking soda! As I was discovering this fact for myself, I went through a brief stage of shock, then awe, and then utter bewilderment. But isn’t baking soda suppose to be super good for you? How can it possibly be made in lab?

Can I get baking soda that isn’t processed with chemicals?

Lucky for us not all baking soda is made in a lab. Long before laboratories, baking soda already existed in nature. It has been used in one form or another for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians used it to clean. Today it can still be found naturally. Sigh of relief! They mine the soda directly from the ground in the form of nahcolite (hint: nahcolite is already baking soda). In the form of nahcolite there are no chemical reactions. There is nothing added, or altered. It is just pure baking soda straight from the ground, the way mother nature made it!

 

 

http://www.dancingwiththeson.com/not-all-baking-sodas-are-alike/

 

 


Not All Baking Sodas are Alike November 12, 2014 By Esther Sage 4 Comments

I was surprised. I knew there were different brands of baking soda but the leader, at least in my mind, had always been Arm & Hammer. I would pick up other brands at Whole Foods but never suspected anything was different among baking sodas. Then, I saw a product listing for baking soda from one of my all time favorite brands, Bob’s Red Mill, at the online company “EvenBetterNow.com.”

I called EvenBetterNow.com to ask them, “What is the difference between Bob’s Red Mill and Arm & Hammer brand baking sodas?”

It turns out that Arm & Hammer is chemically created. They use a chemical process that turns trona ore into soda ash and then use carbon dioxide to react with the soda ash to produce baking soda.

On the other hand, Bob’s Red Mill brand is natural baking soda. It is mined in Colorado directly from the ground in its natural sodium bicarbonate state. It is extracted by an all-natural water process that uses no chemicals.

 

 

 

So happens....I knew someone [her son] who worked on summer at the CO location and received a small bag [50 POUNDS!] of the pure, natural baking soda mined here. This is why I'm confused by "baking soda going 'ineffective'. In this form, it's an inert substance if it's not exposed to air/moisture/high temperature. I keep both baking soda and baking powder in sealed metal cans...at moderate to cool room temperatures. It's always been good.

 

 

I use the baking POWDER up fast enough, I guess. I know it can lose effectiveness so I'm glad to know easy ways to "proof" that ....like we "proof" the yeast.

 

MtRider :cook: ....need a chemist on my survival team!

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I have had baking powder die over too many months of cupboard storage. Thanks for the tip on how to test both . I have never had baking soda go bad.

 

Is baking soda used in baking powder and is there a recipe to make baking powder ?

 

They do different things when you bake with it but I am not going to look it up , I just understand that basically...... some of you will know the absolute details but I just wanted to know a recipe to make my own baking powder since I dont use it fast enough most of the time only cooking for one and needing to keep my diet low carb. But if I had to do a lot more physical labor I can eat more carbs and quick breads are easy to do in an emergency rough out camp , so would love a basic recipe of how to make baking powder as I have wondered lately about that.

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I've never had either go non-reactive but with older baking powder, I sometimes put in just a bit more...in case. Baking soda....I'd never bother.

 

Baking Powder = 2 parts cream of tartar + 1 part baking soda

 

 

MtRider :cook:

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