You have probably heard about and maybe even used the baking soda–vinegar reaction to make homemade volcanoes erupt, shoot bottle rockets up in the air or to detect acids and bases. When baking powder is added to a mixture of flour, milk, eggs, oil, and sugar, bubbles begin to form when you drop the batter into half a dozen individual pancakes on a griddle, they’ll continue to bubble and rise as they cook.Baking soda is not only great for cooking, but it is also a useful chemical for science projects.
Pancake batter is the perfect example of this interaction. The chemical composition of baking powder means that baked goods are generally lighter and fluffier compared to those made with just baking soda. Double-acting baking powder, which is the kind that you’ll find in the grocery store, produces bubbles in two ways: when it is mixed with wet ingredients and then when it gets heated. Baking soda is essential for baked goods, but baking powder is really what makes pancakes and biscuits rise and become so super fluffy.
Baking powder, like baking soda, is a chemical leavening agent made with sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) plus a weak acid, such as potassium bitartrate. You need to cook it pretty quickly, too: “Because baking soda reacts immediately, quick breads made with it must be baked or cooked right after mixing,” writes Lopez-Alt. If you accidentally use too much in a recipe, you’ll be able to taste its metallic-like flavor.
Oh, and as Bill Nye demonstrated, it can also create a volcanic-like explosion that will make 10-year-olds have googly eyes.īaking soda is also strong. Kenji Lopez-Alt in The Food Lab.īaking soda also helps meat to brown and get crispy when seared in a pan. The buttermilk is not just a flavoring agent-it provides the necessary acid to react with the baking soda and leaven the bread,” explains J. “That’s why you see so many classic recipes for buttermilk pancakes and buttermilk biscuits or cake recipes that contain vinegar. When baking soda is combined with an acidic ingredient such as lemon juice, vinegar, cream of tartar, or buttermilk, it will cause baked goods to rise. And this dry ingredient is a powerhouse: It can absorb nasty odors from your refrigerator just as well as it can help cakes and cookies bake beautifully. Let’s get some facts straight, because that’s what Bill Nye would like me to do: baking soda is a chemical compound also known as sodium bicarbonate also known as NaHCO₃. But what’s the difference between them anyway?
At the heart of that interaction are two very science-y ingredients: baking soda and baking powder. And even though I barely made it out of high school chemistry, and ultimately pursued my dream writing career, I never really escaped chemistry because the truth is, cooking and science intersect far more often than I’d like. He made this 10-year-old aspiring writer/artist/cooking-show host care about, or at least be inquisitive about, science. I was in elementary school in the early 2000s, which meant that most of my Fridays were spent with Bill Nye the Science Guy.