The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 163
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BakingsodaaffectspH,whichinturnaffectsbrowning.
Thepancakeallthewayontheleftisinordinatelyacidic,
due to the unneutralized buttermilk. It cooked up pale and
bland.Itwasalsounderrisen,withaflat,densetexture.The
one all the way around on the bottom, with a full ½
teaspoon of baking soda in the batter, had the opposite
problem. It browned far too quickly, lending it an acrid
burnt flavor tinged with the soapy chemical aftertaste of
unneutralized baking soda. Interestingly enough, this
pancake was also flat and dense—the large amount of
baking soda reacted too violently when mixed into the
batter.Thecarbondioxidebubblesinflatedtoorapidlyand,
likeanoverfilledballoon,thepancake“popped,”becoming
denseandflaccidasitcooked.
Thisbrowningphenomenonisn’tjustlimitedtopancakes,
of course. For example, cookie recipes routinely include
bakingsodatoaidbrowning,evenwhenthereisn’tanacid
forittoreactwith.
DoubleBubble
If there’s one major drawback with chemically leavened
breads, it’s that they need to be cooked pretty much
immediatelyafterthebatterismixed.Unlikeayeastedbread
dough,whichislowinmoistureandkneadeduntilatough,
elasticglutennetworkformstotrapthemassiveamountsof
carbondioxideproduced,aquickbreadmustbemadewith
an extremely moist batter—baking powder simply doesn’t
produce enough gas toeffectively leaven a thicker dough.
Batters have relatively little gluten formation, meaning that
they aren’t all that great at trapping and holding bubbles.
Onceyoumixabatter,yourbakingsodaorbakingpowder
immediately begins producing gas, and that gas almost
immediately being trying to escape into the air. When
workingwithquickbreads,thosewhoaren’tintothewhole
brevitythingmayrunintodifficulties.
Cook your pancakes immediately after mixing, and you
