Pastry Powder, or Baking Powder
Ingredients
Directions
Make the powder
Mix tartaric acid, carbonate of soda, and ground rice thoroughly.
Roll the mixture with a rolling pin to remove lumps.
Store in a tightly sealed wide-mouthed bottle until needed.
Use the powder
Use 1 teaspoon of this powder for every pound of flour in pastry.
For cakes, use a heaped teaspoon for every pound of material.
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
- Tartaric acid
- Reacts with the carbonate of soda to release carbon dioxide, which makes baked goods rise.
- Carbonate of soda
- Supplies the alkali that reacts with the acid to produce gas for rising.
- Ground rice
- Keeps the acid and carbonate apart and dry so the powder stores without reacting early.
The step that matters
Rolling and sealing the mixture. Lumps can hold pockets of acid or carbonate that react unevenly, and moisture in the air can start the reaction early, so the powder loses strength. Rolling mixes it evenly and a tightly sealed container keeps it dry.
“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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