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Dessert

Yeast Powders

A leavening powder made from tartaric acid and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Yeast Powders

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in your batter or mixture.

  2. Stir in the tartaric acid last to make it light.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Baking soda
Reacts with acid to release carbon dioxide gas, which makes the batter rise and turn light.
Tartaric acid
Acid that reacts with baking soda to produce gas bubbles for lift and a light texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the tartaric acid last. Tartaric acid and baking soda start releasing carbon dioxide as soon as they meet moisture. Adding the acid last keeps most of the gas forming in the batter at the point you want lift, rather than being lost before baking or mixing finishes.

“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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