Month: March 2011

For those of you in ecological despair over my story of potash and the way greedy, ignorant Colonial folk treated the virgin land, I have some comfort to offer. Specifically, that while it is true there was some wholesale destruction of woodland in the interest of making potash (some of that forest, in truth, wasn’t […]

Of course this new-fangled chemical leavening wasn’t perfect. Sure it made bubbles in batters, yes it was harmless to ingest. Yet it had a decidedly odd taste compared to yeast. This was especially true if you simply used water to get the leavening reaction going. In that case your quickbread or biscuit would have an extremely bitter taste. Yet there were risks to using acids as well, for if you didn’t get the proportion of pearlash and sour milk just right the finished biscuit would taste even worse, at least if your batter had any fat in it. The reason, because alkaline + fat + heat = soap, which is what you’d get if you didn’t incite a thorough reaction and neutralize all the leavening. This sort of thing can and does still happen, notably in chocolate chip cookies if the baker decides to try to substitute baking soda for baking powder. Blechh.

It wasn’t long after potassium carbonate was finally isolated as the key ingredient in potash (Antonio Campanella, 1745) that enterprising chemists got interested in refining it, taking the extra step of heating potash to burn away its ashy residues. This had the effect of turning the powder a sparkling white, which thence became know as […]

Joe, when you say chemical leavening started with potash, do you mean the same potash I buy in bags at the hardware store to use in my garden? Yes that’s right, the very same stuff. Being such a strong alkaline, it is also extremely useful in neutralizing acid soils.

Why, America of course. What, you thought it was Irish? Perish the thought! It was Native Americans who first invented chemical leavening, using ashes as they did to “lighten” grain cakes. How did that work? you might ask. Well, ashes contain alkaline salts. Put them into a wet grain porridge and the result will be bubbles. Not a lot of bubbles mind you, but enough to make a difference in the cooked porridge cake’s texture. Of course the flavor is another matter, but that didn’t seem to bother the Indians much.

I added a cross-section photo at the end of the melon pan post for all those who are interested. Judging from the emails and comments, that’s quite a few! – J

I’m not in the habit of being so timely with my projects, but 7-year-old Jo Pastry is really into St. Patrick’s Day this year. Soda bread is simplicity itself, so, why not?