Baking soda (NaHCO3) is a common household ingredient. Some common uses include deodorizing the fridge, rehydrating baked products, and cleaning equipment. The strange services of baking soda around the home may come as a surprise to you.
Baking soda (NaHCO3) is an essential ingredient for every cook. The 18 uses range from preparing fresh flowers to polishing cookware.
Keep baking soda in a cool, dry place.
Most people still keep their baking soda in the original box. Depending on the company, this might be a cardboard box or a resealable plastic bag.
Reusable plastic bags are preferable, although they are less common and more difficult to recycle. They serve as a protective barrier for the baking soda. Cardboard containers have no standard of comparison.
Cardboard boxes are the poorest storage container since their lids quickly come off and need more sturdy.
They allow in a lot of oxygen, which might cause sodium bicarbonate to clump up for no apparent reason. If there are any clumps of baking soda, remove them and store the powder in an airtight container. If your baking soda has already clumped, don’t despair; keep it different next time.
Crush the baking soda into the bowl with the meat tenderizer. Even the notoriously tricky baking soda may be processed in a blender.
Tidy up the kitchen.
It may be challenging to restore cookware to its former glory, even with baking soda.
Adding two tablespoons and simmering for fifteen minutes, soaking the pots or pans in hot water and regular dishwashing liquid for a few minutes before washing as usual, or making a paste by mixing three parts baking soda to one part water and scouring the pan with a scouring pad before washing as usual, are all effective methods for removing tough, burned-on food and stains.
Onions That Burn Fast
You’ll appreciate what baking soda can do for onions when you’ve seen shrimp brown more quickly and consistently.
A quarter teaspoon per pound of thinly sliced onions may be all needed to get the color of caramelized onions.
We do not recommend using this method to prepare French onion soup or to top your next burger since it may alter the taste and texture of the onions.
Suppose you must quickly brown onions and blend them with other ingredients (as in this French Onion Dip). However, baking soda may dramatically cut your cooking time.
Produce may be cleaned using baking soda.
Do you know whether your fruit is clean, even if it looks and feels fine? We mean no harm by our warnings.
This piece is an effort to drive home the need to thoroughly clean fruits before consuming them. Clean fruit is less likely to have bacteria on it.
Although it is commonly accepted that washing fruits and vegetables is necessary, knowing how to do so may not be easy.
The United States Department of Agriculture warns against using dish soap or produce wash on vegetables. Due to the lack of oversight from the FDA, these items should be avoided at all costs.
In addition, plants with leaves are sensitive to temperature changes. Therefore, hot water should be avoided. However, cold water does not easily remove stubborn stains or food wax.
Then, what should we do? Make a wash using baking soda and water.
Add 3–4 teaspoons of baking soda to a cup of room-temperature water and stir.
After you’ve washed your veggies, could you give them a good shake? Baking soda is essential for this straightforward process since it dissolves food wax easily. Its alkaline composition allows it to be effective in dissolving grease and dirt.
- Acidity Regulation in Canned Tomatoes
Although canned tomatoes have many positive qualities, “consistent” is not one of them. This is particularly true regarding acidity, which may vary widely across brands.
A meal’s acidity may be rapidly and efficiently neutralized by adding a quarter teaspoon of baking soda without altering the flavor or texture of the cuisine.
This technique is vital for taming the flavors of our hearty, thick tomato soup in the Nordstrom style, and it works for any sauce or purée made from a particularly sour batch of canned tomatoes.
- Baking soda may be used to spice up ordinary dishes in exciting ways.
To make omelets and scrambled eggs lighter and fluffier, use 12 tablespoons of baking soda for every three eggs. To reduce the acidity or tenderize small pieces of meat (such as beef or pig), a dash of baking soda may be helpful in tomato-based dishes. Once the meat has rested for a few hours in the fridge, remove the baking soda before continuing with the cooking procedure.
- Disinfect the counters, the sink, and the appliances.
Washing with baking soda, rinsing, and drying may help eliminate odors left behind after working with savory items like garlic or onions. This approach may also be used to remove stubborn stains off cutting boards.
the process of transforming spaghetti into Ramen
The idea of making wine from water is interesting, that’s for sure. Would you believe me if I told you I could make ramen noodles from angel hair pasta?
The alkaline mineral kansui gives Ramen noodles their characteristic yellow color and bouncy feel; this page extensively explores it.
The results of adding baking soda to a pot of boiling spaghetti may be strikingly similar. Will they have the same delicious taste as homemade ramen?
Not. If you’re at a dry Asian grocery shop in the middle of the desert, it will pair well with a bowl of ramen.
A minimal number of considerations is required. To avoid being shocked by the sudden appearance of tiny, frothy bubbles, ensure the pot is not filled before adding the baking soda.
In addition, if you add more baking soda, the pasta will have the consistency of ramen, but the taste will be too mineralized. What unifying principle guides us?
Don’t use more than two teaspoons of baking soda per quart of water when cooking noodles in a mild broth.
If you’re putting them in a robust, fatty broth like tonkatsu, go all out and add a full tablespoon of baking soda for each quart.
To peel hard-boiled eggs more efficiently, use baking soda.
You may want to pull out all of your hair if you attempt to peel a hard-boiled egg.
If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably looked for and tried every possible way to make this tedious task go more quickly. The eggs can only be chilled on the counter or put in an ice bath.
Thankfully, baking soda was the answer to our problem of peeling eggs.
The secret is putting some baking soda into the water before cooking. There shouldn’t be any issues with the eggs overcooking or peeling.
Only 12 tablespoons of baking soda are needed to treat a quart of water. The most apparent negative of this method is that the sulfur might give your eggs a more robust flavor and aroma than they would otherwise have.
If you know why eggshells stick to eggs, you’ll see why this procedure is so effective.
This is because albumen (also known as egg white) has a low pH, making it acidic. After being cooked, egg whites stick to the keratin on the egg’s inner membrane.
When baking soda is added to water, the solution becomes more essential. Since keratin and egg whites no longer have such a strong link, peeling eggs has become much more straightforward.
Ten. Keep your fridge clean and odor-free at all times.
Wipe the interior of your fridge with a mix of baking soda and water (3 parts baking soda to 1 part water) to eliminate smells and stains. A little bottle of baking soda placed inside the fridge can help neutralize any residual scents and keep the fridge smelling fresh. Cabinets under damp sources like refrigerators, freezers, and store cabinets would benefit significantly.
11 You need to get new dish rags and sponges.
Sponges and dishcloths may be soaked overnight in 1 liter of warm water and 4 tablespoons of baking soda to neutralize unpleasant aromas left behind during the cleaning process.
Produce should be washed before consumption.
This method is safe enough to use on freshly harvested vegetables to remove any trace of dirt or residue. Wash your produce in a large bowl or basin with three to four tablespoons of baking soda added to the water.
Thirteen improvements to the hummus and beans
Despite perfectly describing what they are, the term “soft beans” is more likely to evoke mental pictures of the worst boy band ever than the key to making creamier than the store-bought kind of hummus.
Baking soda is the best and fastest way to soften beans since it raises the pH of the boiling water, allowing the beans to break down and become tender.
To prepare one cup of dried beans, we add one teaspoon of baking soda to six cups of cold water and let them soak overnight before cooking.
The next few steps will have you enjoying a bowl of silky, flavorful Israeli hummus in no time.
Put some baking soda on your meat, which will stay tender for a long time.
With the price of meat at an all-time high, maximizing your grocery store budget’s savings potential makes sense.
Whether you often buy tougher cuts or want to improve the quality of your standard purchases, tenderizing your meat before cooking is a terrific approach to enhance your eating experience.
Baking soda isn’t quite the first thing you’d think of, but it’s our tried-and-true favorite.
Yes, this everyday kitchen tool can create tender beef that almost melts in your mouth.
Baking soda may be used to alter the pH of meat.
As a result, there is less of a binding between the proteins and the flesh. After being coated with baking soda, large amounts of meat should be refrigerated for three to five hours.
Prepare and wash the meal as usual. Create a baking soda solution to trap microscopic debris.
You can mix 1/2 cup water and 1 teaspoon baking soda. There are 12 ounces of beef in this meal. After at least 15 minutes, drain and cook the meat as usual.
15 – Clean the inside of the stove.
Mix 1 liter of warm water with 4 tablespoons of baking soda to disinfect the oven. Apply a paste from three baking sodas and one water to stubborn stains. Wash it after it sits for 10 minutes.
You may use it to speed up the cooking time of your beans.
Beans are a fantastic protein source that won’t break the bank. The only drawback is the time required to prepare dried beans for consumption.
Canned beans may save you time, but dry beans are better in every way (price, taste, and texture).
However, you may expect to spend at least nine hours getting ready due to the soaking and boiling steps. Everybody is entirely occupied right now. No, not us at all!
That is until we discovered a method to rapidly and easily prepare bean dishes.
Baking soda is, as could be expected, an integral part of the procedure. If you add baking soda to your bean pot, you may reduce the cooking time by half.
You may do this by adding baking soda to the beans while they cook or soaking them in a baking soda and water mixture beforehand.
Baking soda’s alkaline properties dissolve the pectin in the beans, speeding up the softening process.
Seventeen. Deodorize and scrub the microwave.
Two teaspoons of baking soda should be combined with water in a small microwave-safe dish—microwave for a couple of minutes on high. Wipe the inside of the microwave to remove any crumbs or spills.
Stainless steel or silverware that has been meticulously polished
To clean silver or stainless steel, use a soft cloth or sponge to apply a paste made of three parts baking soda to one part water, and then rinse and dry the item.
