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Baking Powder
Sixteen ounces corn starch, eight of bicarbonate of soda, five of tartaric acid; mix thoroughly. - Mrs. Dr. Allen, Oberlin , Ohio.
Eight ounces flour, eight of English bicarbonate of soda, seven of tartaric acid; mix thoroughly by passing several times through a sieve.-Mrs. Trimble, Mt. Gilead, Ohio.
Two contributors' formulas for homemade baking powder, given by weight in ounces. They differ in more than the filler: one is chemically balanced and one is not.
- Use Mrs. Trimble's ratioTartaric acid is diprotic, so it takes roughly 1.12 parts bicarbonate of soda by weight to neutralize 1 part acid. Mrs. Trimble's 8:7 is very close to that; Mrs. Allen's 8:5 leaves about 30 percent of the soda unreacted, which can taste soapy and yellow biscuits.
- Tartaric acid is not cream of tartarThey are not interchangeable. Cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) is far weaker acid-for-weight, so substituting it one-for-one will leave the mix badly alkaline. Tartaric acid is sold as a food-grade powder for winemaking and confectionery.
- This is single-actingTartaric acid reacts with soda the moment liquid is added, and fast. Batter or dough made with it must go straight into the oven; a rested muffin batter will be flat. Modern double-acting commercial powders hold part of their lift until heat hits, which is why they behave differently in the same recipe.
- "English bicarbonate of soda"Recipes of this period sometimes specify English soda, which seems to have been regarded as a finer and more dependable grade than some of what was sold domestically. Any modern baking soda is at least as good.
- The cornstarch is not paddingIt keeps the acid and the alkali physically separated and absorbs stray moisture, which is what stops the mix from spending itself in the tin. Mrs. Trimble's flour version does the same job less well, since flour carries more moisture. Cornstarch is the better choice.
- Everything must be bone drySift the three powders together several times (as Mrs. Trimble directs; Mrs. Allen says only "mix thoroughly") and store airtight with a desiccant if you have one. Homemade powder loses strength within a few weeks; mix an ounce or two at a time rather than Mrs. Allen's 29-ounce or Mrs. Trimble's 23-ounce batch.
- Scaling and dosageFor a small batch, use 4 tsp cornstarch, 2 tsp baking soda and a scant 2 tsp tartaric acid by volume; this gives a roughly balanced soda-to-acid ratio by weight, though not Mrs. Trimble's exact proportions. Check by dropping a pinch in warm water. Use 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons per cup of flour, as with commercial powder, and test the first batch on a single biscuit before committing a whole recipe.
Home-mixed baking powder appears in many American cookbooks of the 1870s and 1880s for two reasons: commercial powders were still relatively new and expensive, and they were widely suspected of adulteration starch, terra alba or alum used to bulk out or cheapen the mix. Mixing your own from three purchasable chemicals was the household answer to that distrust, and it also let a cook control the strength. The presence of contributors from Oberlin and Mt. Gilead, Ohio, in a book called The Dixie Cook Book reflects its publishing history: the work is generally traced to the same Midwestern compilation stock as Buckeye Cookery, reissued with a Southern title and Southern additions, so Ohio housewives' recipes travelled south with the plates.