To Make Baking Powder
Ingredients
Directions
Sift together the cream of tartar, baking soda, and cornstarch. Mix thoroughly until well combined.
Store in an airtight container for future use.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acid that reacts with baking soda to produce gas for rising.
- Baking soda
- Supplies the alkaline base that reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide.
- Cornstarch
- Absorbs moisture and keeps the powder dry so it does not clump and stays free-flowing.
The step that matters
Sift and mix thoroughly. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of baking soda or acid, so some batches rise unevenly or taste bitter or metallic. Thorough blending spreads the reactants evenly through the powder.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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