Bicarbonate of soda?

Hmm. Their label does say not to be taken internally. Chemically it should be the same as the baking product, but I suspect the manufacturing process wasn't to food grade / standards. Was it a very fine powder, or more crystalline?

If the former, I'd probably go ahead and bake / eat the thing. If the latter I'd bin it.

Bungle73 wrote:

Imposter wrote:

It's basically the same stuff - although it's up to you whether you want to cook with something that has presumably been sitting in the cleaning cupboard rather than the pantry.

It was in the food cupboard, along with other related food products, which is why I thought it would do.

Apropos of nothing, why did you choose your user name?

Bungle73 wrote:

The only ingredient that will be wasted is 200 grams of dates. The rest was tap water.

What sort of cake do you get from dates, bicarbonate of soda and some tap water???????????

Bungle73 wrote:

I chucked it in the food bin.

children in africa are starving and you are chucking food in the bin.

#selfish

Normal waste. It wasn't food

Bungle73 wrote:

natrix wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

The only ingredient that will be wasted is 200 grams of dates. The rest was tap water.

What sort of cake do you get from dates, bicarbonate of soda and some tap water???????????

Riiiiiiiiiiiight. I don't recall saying that was the entirety of the ingredients........

So how did you avoid wasting the rest?

Bungle73 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

natrix wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

The only ingredient that will be wasted is 200 grams of dates. The rest was tap water.

What sort of cake do you get from dates, bicarbonate of soda and some tap water???????????

Riiiiiiiiiiiight. I don't recall saying that was the entirety of the ingredients........

So how did you avoid wasting the rest?

You mean the rest that wasn't in there yet?

I was always under the impression the bicarb gets mixed with the flour but like a say my baking knowledge is very limited. I'm struggling to understand the method being used if you had mixed fruit, water and bicarb though.

Bungle73 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

natrix wrote:

Bungle73 wrote:

The only ingredient that will be wasted is 200 grams of dates. The rest was tap water.

What sort of cake do you get from dates, bicarbonate of soda and some tap water???????????

Riiiiiiiiiiiight. I don't recall saying that was the entirety of the ingredients........

So how did you avoid wasting the rest?

You mean the rest that wasn't in there yet?

I was always under the impression the bicarb gets mixed with the flour but like a say my baking knowledge is very limited. I'm struggling to understand the method being used if you had mixed fruit, water and bicarb though.

https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/dat ... alnut-cake

Fair enough, seems weird as I always thought it's purpose was as a raising agent.

On the basis of the performance thus far, is it even wise for you to be near the oven unsupervised?

Ben6899 wrote:

This is a good article: https://www.dri-pak.co.uk/the-differenc ... e-of-soda/

You were at minimal risk, but at risk all the same.

But on the up-side, we wouldn't have felt a thing.

Although it's not being done in the recipe Bungle73 was following, you sometimes put dried fruit (or even fresh fruit, veg or lettuce/salad) in a small bath of water with added bicarb in order to 'cleanse' the fruit/veg/salad of any unwelcome harmful substances, esp pesticides, but also tiny insects, etc.
It is especially useful to cleanse cleanse fruit/veg/salad types which are heavily treated, as it causes the harmful substances to detach more easily/more quickly from the surfaces than simply washing the fruit/veg/salad under the tap.

You add 1 teaspoon of bicarb to a litre of cold water, put the fruit/veg in the water for about 5 mins, then remove and rinse the whatever under the tap. The same litre of bicarb water can be used for 5-6 lots of whatever (one 'lot' being about 1 lettuce or 5 apples or 15 plums or 100 blueberries, etc).

I doubt if much harm would occur if you used household bicarb when washing fruit/veg, but I'd be reluctant to use household bicarb in an actual cake, when the bicarb should match food standards (basically be of a higher purity). Although I would happily use household bicarb to clean the pans I cook in and the cutlery I eat with.

Bicarb for cooking also includes an added rising agent, although pure bicarb and something sour added to the baking mixture (e.g. yoghurt, lemon juice) works just as well.
Household bicarb lacks a rising agent, as obviously unneeded, but sometimes includes added talcum powder to part counterbalance bicarb's abrasive qualities.

ayjaycee wrote:

On the basis of the performance thus far, is it even wise for you to be near the oven unsupervised?

knedlicky wrote:

Although it's not being done in the recipe Bungle73 was following, you sometimes put dried fruit (or even fresh fruit, veg or lettuce/salad) in a small bath of water with added bicarb in order to 'cleanse' the fruit/veg/salad of any unwelcome harmful substances, esp pesticides, but also tiny insects, etc.
.

Interesting. I've never heard of that.

But used to work with a lady who was bought up in Hong Kong. When she moved to UK (10 or so) she was at a family friend's house and was asked to help in the kitchen preparing salad, specifically washing the lettuce.

She complained to her mum that "the water wasn't pink!"

Apparently it was the practice in HK to have a bottle of potassium permanganate in a dropper bottle by the sink, and you'd put a couple of drops in the water, making it pink, and then wash anything that was going to eaten raw in that. The water can't have been very good.