Cooking with baking soda
Reduce Acidity in Food
Baking soda is basic and a neutralizer.
This means it reduces the acidity levels of whatever it is added to. Some foods we eat are extremely acidic in terms of pH levels, which can be hard on your stomach and ultimately contribute to ulcers or acid reflux (heartburn).
Adding baking soda to the food we eat can (1) reduce tastes that are too tart, sharp, or acidic, and (2) make it easier on our stomach. That’s great.
For example, you can sprinkle baking soda to tomato-based, citrus-based or vinegar-based recipes to reduce the sharp taste. Sprinkle to taste – add a little at a time until you like what you taste.
If you have actual heartburn or acid reflux problems, you can add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to 1 cup of soda and drink it slowly. This will eliminate the burning sensation and can also calm upset stomachs. Just beware if you have kidney or heart conditions, or are on certain types of medication that alter your blood pH.
De-odorizing Meat
Sometimes, the meat we cook and put into our bodies has a strong, strong smell. Sometimes this is good and savory, yet other times it can still make us gag before we properly season it.
Fish and hunted game come to mind, especially.
To remove such strong odors (not spoilage, just aggressive gamey odors and flavors) from fish and hunted game, you can just let the fillets or pieces of meat soak in a tablespoon of baking soda and 16 ounces of water solution for up to an hour. Rinse the meat, and the strong odor will be gone.
Your meat will now taste much better once the edge has been removed from it. Not all of us enjoy eating meat or fish that tastes like it was just picked out from the salty ocean.
Fluffy Omelets
Who’s a fan of breakfast? There is no better meal in the universe. Breakfast should be had at lunch and dinner frequently.
Even if you’re not a fan of breakfast in general, there is no way you won’t be a fan of the fluffy, delicious omelets that baking soda can help you create. If you add ½ tablespoon of baking soda to 3 eggs and whisk it all together, your omelets will be nice and fluffy.
This creates picture-perfect omelets and also feels great in the mouth.
Easier Hardboiled Eggs
Hardboiled eggs can be very difficult for some people to peel. They might not have very good finger dexterity, or they are just plain bad at it.
Whatever the case, you can simplify this process by adding 2 tablespoons of baking soda to the water that you boil your eggs in. This will make the shell separate from the egg easier, and make hardboiled eggs a more accessible treat for you.
De-feathering Game
If you’re a hunter, you will love this tip.
Sometimes you can’t be bothered to de-feather a bird by hand, and the easiest way to do it otherwise is to boil it.
Add a tablespoon of baking soda to the pot of water that you are boiling for the bird – that will help the feathers slide off easier, and keep the skin cleaner and easier to cook later. Of course, this also decreases the sometimes foul odor that comes with freshly killed meat.
Homemade Gatorade
If you have a sporting event coming up soon, you can save money by making your own Gatorade! This is easier than you think, and if you are a soccer mom and have to provide beverages for an entire team, look no further.
All you have to do is mix:
- ½ tablespoon of baking soda
- ½ tablespoon of salt
- 1 quart of water
- 1 pack of sports drink powder
After all, all sports drinks do is put sodium and salts back into athletes so they don’t get dehydrated. It is a relatively simple recipe with relatively simple goals.
This can serve many kids (and adults!) for just the price of a packet of sports powder ($2.00).
Substitute for Baking Powder
If there are any bakers in the house, you might know what I’m talking about. Baking soda is sometimes confused with baking powder at the grocery store, and it’s a completely understandable mistake.
Luckily, you can use baking soda instead of baking powder for your baking recipes, if you just mix it with cream of tartar. Two parts cream of tartar to one part baking soda.
Voila, great cake on the way. You probably won’t even be able to tell that anything is different.
Tenderize Meat
You can actually tenderize meat with baking soda if you have an hour to kill! All you need to do is rub both sides of your piece of meat with baking soda, and then put it back into the fridge to wait. Make sure you coat the meat liberally with baking soda.
After about 45 minutes, simply rinse the baking soda off, and enjoy your automatically tenderized piece of meat. This works because baking soda slowly denatures the proteins in the meat that it comes in contact with.
Clean Burned Pans
Baking soda is really a wondrous cleaning agent – it is effective and strong, but so gentle that you can use it on almost any surface, including a non-stick Teflon frying pan.
Sometimes we’re not paying attention and burn things on the stove in our pan – it’s no one’s fault. But how do you clean that annoying burnt matter on your pan? It might take an extreme amount of scrubbing, but that might also damage your non-stick Teflon pan.
As usual, baking soda comes to the rescue.
Boil water in the pan, and turn the stove off. Then, add about ½ cup of baking soda, depending on the size of the pan. Let this solution sit overnight. Tomorrow morning, you will be able to instantly clean the burnt matter from your pan without damaging it. Voila.
