Salts & Food Additives

• Sodium Chloride Salts - Table, Kosher, Sea, etc.
• Other Simple Salts
• Food Additives

Sodium Chloride Salts

Other Simple Salts

Baking Soda

The main use of Baking Soda is as a leavening agent in quick breads and the like. It reacts with acids in the dough, producing bubbles of Carbon Dioxide. The acid may be provided by lemon juice, yogurt, buttermilk, cocoa, vinegar, cream of tartar or phosphates. Without acid, some Carbon Dioxide will be released by thermal decomposition at temperatures above 180°F/80°C.

Baking soda was formerly used to make green vegetables greener, but this is little done today as the color looks artificial and it damages nutrition and flavor. Today, color is preserved by not overcooking. Baking soda is often used to speed cooking of beans and in the traditional British dish Mushy Peas. In some regions it is used to tenderize meat, but all these cooking uses degrade nutrition. More usefully, it is used in breading of fried foods to make the breading more porous so it is not steamed off the food. Baking Soda has been tested in place of Edible Potash in various Nigerian recipes and found to work just fine.

Baking Powder

This mixture is used as a leavening agent for quick breads and baked goods without enough gluten to hold bubbles long or where a fermented taste is undesirable. It includes Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) and an acid powder. Today most available is "Double Acting" with one acid releasing at room temperature with moisture, the other releasing acid with heat. The photo sample is made from Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (high temperature acid) Sodium Bicarbonate, Corn Starch (flow agent), and Monocalcium Phosphate (low temperature acid). Baking Powders with Sodium Aluminum Sulphate or Phosphate instead of Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate are going out of style due to suspicion of Aluminum as a neurotoxin and claims that some people can detect a metallic taste in baked goods made with it.

Cream of Tartar

This substance is a byproduct of wine making.It is used to stabilize beaten egg whites and whipped cream, and to reduce discoloration in boiled vegetables. It is also used to prevent crystallization of sugar syrups and sometimes as an acid ingredient in Baking Powders.

Lime

Lime is used in Thailand to produce crisper, longer lasting batters on fruits and other deep fried items. It is also used in pickling, and has long been so used in the West, but is no longer recommended.   Details and Cooking.

Potash, Edible

This substance is mineral salts gathered from dry salt beds in arid regions. Color will vary by region. It is used in cooking, particularly in Africa, to shorten the cooking time of beans, to emulsify Red Palm Oil with water, to make recipes with Okra more slimy (yes, they want that in Africa), and to make green vegetables more green.

Potash has been shown to reduce the amount of protein in foods it is cooked with. Some of the other substances found in natural Potash may be toxic, but used occasionally in recipe quantities it is considered safe. It should not be consumed by pregnant women as it has been shown to cause early stage abortions.
Subst:   Baking Soda (not baking powder) has been tested in various Nigerian recipes and found to work just fine.

Food Additives

MSG

This highly controversial white crystalline powder is rapidly increasing in use, particularly in processed foods. The reason for this is simple, it enhances flavors. Processed foods are loaded with salt and spiked with MSG to cover their lack of natural flavor.

First identified in seaweed, glutamate exists in many natural foods, including mushrooms and some vegetables. Formerly made from wheat, it is now industrially produced by bacterial fermentation of carbohydrates, and is celiac safe. It's safety in other respects has been strongly attacked and just as strongly defended. See our page MSG & Health.   Diagram by Benrr101 contributed to the public domain.