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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

I would disagree slightly with this, one recipe I made used the reaction between the baking soda and the buttermilk to provide the "fluffyness", since I wasn't aware I didn't finish the prep fast enough to get it into the oven while it was still internally foaming, and ended up with a very short and dense cake. Had someone said, "You want to be sure to be baking before the sodium bicarbonate stops reacting." that would have clued me into the time constraint based on the chemistry.

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The thing that bugs me about these commonly cited pieces of information about cooking is I have a hard time verifying them without a lot of experimentation. I took up making waffles in the morning following the common buttermilk + baking soda + baking powder recipe. One day I was kind of groggy and forgot to add baking soda; and I could not tell the difference. The whole food writing / recipe sector lost a lot of credibility for me that day.

Well the basic thing going on is "acid + base". Baking powder contains both (baking powder is baking soda + cream of tartar - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_bitartrate), and starts reacting when water is added (try it).

Baking soda is a base, and reacts with buttermilk which is acidic.

It's not clear to me why some recipes contain both acid+baking soda and baking powder. Maybe they're worried that the first combination isn't sufficient?

My breakfast this morning used yoghurt + baking soda ;) (бухти)

I think one of them has a delaying effect which kicks, need to google it

baking powder has a delayed effect, activated by heat.

Some people learn the technique, others learn the chemistry and physics behind the technique.

For me it was more the chemistry informed the technique.

If you haven’t before, check out PBS’s America’s Test Kitchen. Perfect blend of the chemistry/food science and some really good cooks and explanations behind tradition.

Understanding the chemistry and physics makes it a lot easier to figure out when something is going wrong and how to fix it. This is particularly true when adjusting temperatures and cooking times.

As per my answer above, you just need to know a very high level food related chemistry -- not even actual chemistry, just how different foods (plants, meats, sauces, etc) react to heat/water/cold and how they interact between them.

There have been untold number of cooks who know nothing about actual chemistry beyond "water = H2O", including tons of professional chefs all over the world. In fact any chef before like early 20th century or so wouldn't know the first thing about chemistry proper unless they've studied chemistry -- heck chemistry became a real discipline after the 18th century, but exquisite cooking has been with us for millennia.

When you know there is going to be too much time between mixing baking soda and citric/lactic/whatever acid is being used, use baking powder. It has the alkaline soda and acid pre-mixed together, but does not fully activate until heat is applied.

If you learn the technique you will learn this too. But I think we are mostly in agreement here. Nothing wrong with undertanding chemistry but cooking is more than theory it's a performing arts.

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