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Drink

Soda Water

A homemade carbonated beverage made by dissolving soda and acid in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Soda Water

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the carbonate of soda in the water.

  2. Pour the mixture into bottles, filling each with ½ cup or ½ pint.

  3. Add ½ teaspoon of tartaric or citric acid to each bottle.

  4. Cork and wire the bottles immediately.

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

Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, which makes the water fizzy.
Tartaric or citric acid
Reacts with the carbonate to release carbon dioxide and gives a tart taste.

The step that matters

Cork and wire the bottles immediately. Carbon dioxide dissolved under pressure escapes quickly once the acid and carbonate react. Sealing the bottles right after adding the acid traps the gas, so the water stays fizzy instead of going flat.

“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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