Why Baking Soda is a Kitchen Superhero

There is no ingredient more unfairly maligned, unjustly slandered, inappropriately blamed, falsely defamed and needlessly castigated as Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), also known as baking (or cooking) soda. In fact, the degree of character assassination is so high that many Indians will happily use what is otherwise the single most versatile ingredient in the kitchen only if it’s not directly called Baking Soda. Eno (or fruit salt) is literally baking soda (plus a few other things) and is widely used as an antacid and a leavening agent (for cakes, appams, dhoklas and such)

Its bad name comes from low cost restaurants sometimes overusing it to save cooking fuel (baking soda breaks pectin in plant cell walls and thus saves restaurants lots of money in energy costs) and then people overeating food in restaurants and going on to blame the use of soda. Yes, if you overcoonsume baking soda (which is hard because it tastes metallic and bitter), it will react with stomach acids and produce carbon dioxide that will cause discomfort. But most culinary uses require a very tiny amount of baking soda.

If you still believe it’s some kind of poison, consider its chemistry - One part sodium, which is essential for our bodies (we get most of our sodium from salt, but baking soda will also taste salty to our tongues because of the sodium) and the bicarbonate - here is a rather stunning fact about your body. The pancrease literally produces bicarbonates (like in Eno) to bring down the acid levels of the food that is passing from your stomach (which is super acidic) to the intestine (which will get dissolved if that strong acid makes it downwards)! If your pancreas things bicarbonates are safe for you, it’s ok for you to consume a tiny bit!

Once you are less afraid of this ingredient, trust me, it will change your life in the kitchen! You can cook chana and rajma quicker, brown pakodas perfectly, caramelise onions faster, keep vessels spotlessly clean and fridges deodorized. And more!