Re: What's the difference between baking soda and yeast...

kilikini wrote on Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:14:16 -0400:

k> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
??>> Oh pshaw, on Tue 09 Oct 2007 11:56:51p, meant to say...
??>>
??>>> On Oct 9, 11:52 pm, Wayne Boatwright
??>>> <wayneboatwright_@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
??>>>>
??>>>>> They both are leavening agents, from what I understand.
??>>>>> What are the differences? Also, is baking soda a good
??>>>>> meat tenderizer for meat (i.e. beef and lamb)?
??>>>
??>>> In short, baking soda is a chemical leavening agent
??>>> activated by an acid such as buttermilk. Yeast is a
??>>> living organism which raises the dough through
??>>> reproduction and the production of CO2. It neds
??>>> gentle warmth and a sugar to work.
??>>
??>> Yikes! Just picture all those yeasty beasties having sex
??>> while your bread dough rises. "-)

k> I've thought about that before, Wayne. Kind of weird, isn't
k> it?

Ultimately, the dough is raised by exactly the same thing, carbon dioxide, produced, in one case, by simple chemistry and, in the other, by the metabolism of yeast. Mystic thoughts aside, it is the by products of the processes and the rate of release of the gas that give the different tastes and textures but different they certainly are, IMHO.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

.

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