Name: Baking Powder
Ingredients: 6 ounces bi-carbonate of soda; 5 ounces tartaric acid; 3 ounces powdered sugar

Baking Powder

Ingredients

6 ounces bi-carbonate of soda
5 ounces tartaric acid
3 ounces powdered sugar

Directions

Mix the bi‑carbonate of soda, tartaric acid, and powdered sugar very thoroughly.
Use 2 teaspoons of this mixture for every pound of flour.

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

Bi-carbonate of soda: Provides the base that reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, which makes baked goods rise.
Tartaric acid: Provides the acid that reacts with the bicarbonate to release gas, giving the leavening its action.

The step that matters

Mix the bi‑carbonate of soda, tartaric acid, and powdered sugar very thoroughly.. The acid and base only react when they meet and dissolve. If they are not evenly blended, some spots get too much acid or base and others too little, so the rise in the finished food is uneven.

“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.