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What's the difference between cream of tartar, baking soda and baking powder?

Richard Cornish
Richard Cornish

Not a Class A drug: Baking soda.
Not a Class A drug: Baking soda.123RF

What is the difference between cream of tartar, baking soda and baking powder? T. Vezgov

I was once taking a cooking class and had portioned out bags of baking powder into those resealable coin bags used by banks. Well, did the head of the department at the TAFE curdle her custard when she saw them. She had obviously had a previous life in the music industry or something before cooking education as apparently little baggies of white powder look just like Class A drugs. Anyway, cream of tartar is tartaric acid, traditionally a byproduct of the wine industry. Ever had little crystals form in a particularly icy bottle of white? That's tartaric acid. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and can form naturally around mineral springs but is usually made by a chemical reaction. It is alkaline. When you combine tartaric acid with alkaline baking soda a chemical reaction takes place and gas forms. When this happens in a batter, the gas is captured by the hardening dough, thus giving it lightness. Because this is an instantaneous reaction, batters and dough made with cream of tartar and baking soda should be cooked quickly after mixing. Baking powder, however, is a mixture of baking soda, starch and a mild acid, which gives off gas when the batter or dough is heated.

Why are some salts saltier than others? G. Campbell

Try this at home. Make sure no one is watching because it's a bit weird. Take some salt and a dry handkerchief. Poke out your tongue. Dab your tongue dry. Now sprinkle a little salt on your tongue. If your tongue is dry, you won't taste the salt. Salt needs to be in a watery solution for you to be able to taste it. Saliva does this job on your tongue. Fine salt crystals dissolve quickly and deliver a quick, sharp hit of salt to the tongue. But sprinkle some chips with coarser cooking salt and they won't initially taste as salty but your mouth will be aching with salt burn at the end of the bucket. Salt flakes can sit on your tongue and not taste salty until you chew them and they begin to dissolve.

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I recently went to the south of Italy and had pasta di ceci. What is it and where can I get it? A. Watterson

Pasta di ceci is pasta made with chickpea flour. I have searched high and low and can't find a commercial brand but if you can make pasta, you can make pasta di ceci. This is a recipe from Riccardo Momesso, who makes really good Calabrian food at his restaurant Valentino, in Melbourne's Toorak. Take 500g of chickpea flour (look for besan flour, he advises) and sift it with 500g 00 pasta flour and a teaspoon of salt. Make a well in the flour and add a mixture of 10 eggs at room temperature and two tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, and bring it together to form a dough. Don't overwork it or the dough will become tough, Momesso warns. Run the dough through pasta rollers as usual. Pasta di ceci goes really well with mussel or pipi sauces or with ripe cherry tomatoes cooked in olive oil.

What is hydrolysed vegetable protein? G. Fuller

I had a cranky old neighbour who used to tell us when we were kids that anything advertised on the telly was useless because if we really needed it, we'd buy it anyway. You'll generally find hydrolysed vegetable protein, HVP, in food advertised on the TV. Most of it is such rubbish, they have to invent cartoon characters just to make you try it. In a nutshell, anything hydrolysed is chemically changed into smaller molecules using the elements found in water. HVP is made when soy, corn or yeast are heated in hydrochloric acid. The proteins are broken down into smaller amino acids, some of which are glutamic acid, which we find yummy. HVP is added to processed food to give it flavour. My cranky old neighbour never ate processed food and lived until he was very old. And cranky.

If you have a vexing culinary query send it to brainfood@richardcornish.com.au

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Richard CornishRichard Cornish writes about food, drinks and producers for Good Food.

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