So, we know that the early history of chemical leavening was defined by a search for non-poisonous gas-producing alkalines to combine with non-poisonous acids to produce bubbles. It wasn’t easy. There are hardly any edible alkalines in our collective pantry to begin with. In fact these days there are only two: egg whites and baking […]
READ ONTo make your own baking powder add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar for every 1 teaspoon of baking powder your recipe calls for. Best to add them in separately, since it would be a shame if they were to start reacting prematurely. You can make your own supposedly-storable baking powder […]
READ ONShould you suddenly find yourself confronted by a recipe that demands buttermilk, but don’t have time to run to the store, there are several possible substitutions. Modern buttermilk is just skim or low-fat milk that’s been curdled slighty with lactic acid-producing bacteria. But since acid is really acid (as long as it’s edible, of course) […]
READ ONI should qualify the previous post by noting that real buttermilk is a thing that isn’t around anymore. People don’t much churn their own butter, and changes in commercial butter-making techniques have eliminated real buttermilk from the food chain. I find that a shame, because my grandfather drank it (he also liked beef consommé over […]
READ ONOne of the things I find interesting about the American biscuit is that it’s name tends to change depending on the leavener that’s being used to raise it. Look through just about any really old cookbook (written before, say, 1860 or so) and you’ll find all kinds of recipes for “soda biscuits” or “baking soda […]
READ ONSo yeah, we get you, you say. Baking powder is a critical component of American (or more properly Southern American) biscuits. So how come there are only three ingredients in this week’s biscuit recipe and not one of them is baking powder? Aha…because the baking powder is already in the flour, or I should say, […]
READ ONThe main thing that differentiates a biscuit from a cracker is its ability to rise. And of course that doesn’t happen by itself. It takes a little chemical mojo, and in our case that mojo comes from baking powder. As I mentioned in one of last week’s posts, baking powder was the invention of one […]
READ ON…that Peach Melba is named for the very same Melba and was also invented by Escoffier? Almost spooky how these things are connected.
READ ONDid you know that Melba toast was invented by none other than Auguste Escoffier? Who’da thunk it?
READ ONThen again, with a bit of distance on the subject, you can kind of see where the Brits are coming from on this whole naming thing. Take a small, disk-shaped piece of flour-and-water dough, bake it, and you have a cracker. Add a little fat and leavening and it’s a biscuit (an American biscuit, that […]
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