Name: Baking Powders I
Ingredients: 3 parts tartaric acid; 1 part sodium bicarbonate; 0.75 part starch; 500 parts flour

Baking Powders I

Ingredients

3 parts tartaric acid
1 part sodium bicarbonate
0.75 part starch
500 parts flour

Directions

Prepare

Sift each ingredient separately to remove coarse pieces.
Mix the tartaric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and starch together.

Use

For rich cake, use 20 parts of this baking powder per 500 parts of flour.
For lean cake, use 15 parts of this baking powder per 500 parts 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

Tartaric acid: Reacts with sodium bicarbonate to release carbon dioxide, which makes the batter rise.
Sodium bicarbonate: Supplies the base that reacts with the acid to produce gas for leavening.
Starch: Absorbs moisture and keeps the acid and base apart so the powder stays dry and stable.

“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.