Oooo I love this. Can you do a vid on cooking beans from dry? Soaking vs. not soaking. Salt no salt. Pressure cooking stove top? Any science behind beans, really.
I've learned that soaked beans have to be fully cooked before I can add my soaked rice. Beans cook much slower once rice is added. This could be good knowledge for one-pot or one-pan meals.
I cook dried beans probably every other day, and here's my advice: 1. If you do it often, invest in an electric pressure cooker e.g. instant pot. The time and convenience savings are large. The only drawback relative to stovetop is that with the stovetop you can test whether they are done at any point, whereas with the pressure cooker you need the time to be dialled in at least somewhat. But there are cooking time tables online for every type of bean that have worked out quite well for me. 2. Salt extends the cooking time by about 25% for me, whether soaked or unsoaked. I have experimented with whether salting the soaking water but then not the boiling water, affects that. I could not tell any difference, both resulted in an approximate 25% increase. 3. How much salt to use is a mystery to me, but I always treat it like I'm salting pasta water and that works out fine. Be conservative, you can salt the beans later if they are under salted. 4. People often say that salting beans before cooking changes the interior texture. I have not noticed this. So I would err on the side of salting them unless you are going to put them in a very salty broth or you are short on cooking time. (Or you don't trust your ability to salt them correctly.) 5. Soaking speeds up the cooking time and probably does nothing else. I have seen a lot of claims about it changing the texture, I have not experienced that at all. Soaking is a good idea if you use the stovetop because it saves a lot of time (30-60 minutes), but with a pressure cooker the time saved is small (5-15 minutes). 6. Consider cooking your beans with flavorings. toss some onion, cumin, garlic, dried mushrooms, whatever you want into the boiling water. You can also cook them in stock (though remember that this also adds salt and cook time has to be adjusted accordingly). After cooking you can remove some larger additions while the smaller ones will just disappear into mush. If you're cooking beans for a stew/gravy this is a great way to up their flavor.
@@karthiktadepalli7560 All good stuff, especially about the salt. I may wait until about 15min before the end to salt. Also, have you tried frying the soaked dry beans in aeromatics before adding hot water & boiling the rest of the way. It's my favorite way to make fried rice & beans right now.
@@EricLeafericson salting in the middle is a stovetop option so I've never tried it, but could definitely work. Frying soaked dry beans is an interesting idea, I've never done that...
Baking soda toothpaste also works wonders with plaque and tartar prevention because of its alkalinity (most oral bacteria are acidophiles) - helps resist biofilm formation.
I've got in to using yeast for my baking recently. I really like the added flavor. It just tastes more wholesome than adding baking powder. It does take some planning, though.
True! Ages ago we made traditional waffles using yeast and that tasted better than without but you are right in that it takes extra planning. Last year we started doing sourdough pancakes (and waffles too), and it was easier than the yeast version (no need to plan ahead) and maybe even tastier than with just yeast.
The best ratio for pancakes I use is 1tsp baking powder & 1 egg to every 1 cup flour, then up to 1 cup of milk or less. This works if doubling the recipe too. I don't like extra b.powder or extra baking soda as it destroys the flavour & makes the pancakes bitter. This is more noticeable as I don't use sugar or butter in the batter. So far the best pancakes are sour dough where a portion of starter is added to regular pancake batter.
I totally agree with you. It seems you understand the subject. What Do Baking Soda and Baking Powder Do? The answer is very simple for people who really can think. You can make pancakes without soda or baking powder. They still will become brown. Colour depends on how much you add sugar and how long you keep them in a pan. In this case, your pancakes will be very flat but still tasty. The baking soda you add when your mix does not contain any acidity like yoghurt or lemon juice, for example. Then you will get some bubbles and your pancake or cake with become fluffy. Backing powder already contains the acidity. In this case, if you add the backing powder in a mixture which does not contain any acidity, then your mixture will be fluffy. If you put additional soda in a mix with backing powder or the opposite it will make our mix bitter. Soda never adds flavour but only fluffiness. I do not care about colour. I care about taste. If you want to have brown colour then add a little bit of sugar. Sugar gives a brown colour and a taste. That is why I never have any backing powder in my pantry, but I always have lemon juice and bicarbonate soda. Mix them together and you will get the fluffiness of your pancake or cake.
Thanks for the tip about adding baking soda to choc chip cookie mix to get the cookies to brown better. Mine always come out too light and never knew why. Thanks!! Gonna try that
Learning music theory allows a guitarist to experiment and be more creative instead of just sticking to written music. This is the same with “cooking theory” and you are the best teacher!!
I use the americas test kitchen buttermilk pancake recipe, which has both baking powder and soda. Their ‘secret’ ingredient, though, is sour cream. 1/4 cup for a standard recipe, the pancakes brown beautifully and it makes them rise even higher (big bubbles!) and they’re just the slightest bit tangy. Amazing.
I think the main cause of confusion about baking powder vs. baking soda is a linguistic one: American English calls both of these substances "baking [something]." If we had fundamentally different names for these two fine white powders (which other English-speaking regions and other languages have), we wouldn't be so confused about them.
yeah in Australia we use the words bicarb (shortened bicarbonate of soda) and baking soda interchangably - so far as i know baking powder has always just been baking powder. If we kept baking soda as bicarb then you wouldn't run the risk of accidently putting in a ton of baking soda in haha
I would eat every one of these Pancakes smothered in butter and real maple syrup. But I am blown away by the explination of Chemistry involved into something so simple as PANCAKES lol
I discovered that baking soda will also remove some of the "canned taste" (maybe you'd call it a metallic taste) from canned corn and other canned vegetables. It has to soak in a baking soda solution for a few minutes, and then you have to rinse it very well. Have you heard of this, Kenji, and can you explain it?
@@tommydillsNot. It seems to make a difference. Since I get free canned food, and baking soda is cheap, I do it. Baking soda is good for a lot of things besides baking. Chemistry.
I rly love vids like this when it comes to cooking; it helps a ton to rly know the science side of things here and get a better idea of how these seemingly basic ingredients work, so one can better adapt their own cookin
I think you missed that chemistry class about baking soda and leavening.... For the most part, that baking soda DID NOT react with acids in the regular recipe (as much as with the weak acid in the powder), but THERMAL DECOMPOSITION broke that BIcarbonate into sodium carbonate, as well as gaseous carbon dioxide (which makes a buttload of "bubbles" in the pancake), as well as water, in the form of steam (also a gas which is making bubbles), which helps rise the pancake even more. "Double acting" refers to the gas release during the liquid phase in mixing as you said, and the heat reaction, which is the same as in the baking soda decomp. But, I love it when science meets the kitchen, and I definitely plan on checking out your book! Thanks.
At what temperature does the decomposition take place? A bit off topic but I use this trick to make bagels by just using boiling water which seems to work fine. I see others going thorough this laborious process of baking the bicarbonate for hours in the oven to turn it into sodium carbonate which seems to be a wast of time and energy when boiling water does the trick. ] From experience I know that bicarbonate siting in water from 24 to 48 hours at room temp turns to carbonate on its own. In Kenjis defense(sort of) his basic recipe has buttermilk and I know for a fact that those acids directly interact with baking soda at room temp to some extent. On the other hand getting the buttermilk to baking soda ratio could be trial and error.
I learned from one of the America's Test Kitchen videos that oil droplets are the cause of uneven browning on pancakes. You actually want to wipe off the oil from your pan with a paper towel if you want solid brown pancakes.
I saw that episode too! And I'd like to add since the purchase of my cast iron I haven't put oil in my skillet when I do pancakes. The first pancake is much nicer (no dotted patterns) than when I used to do it in my non-stick with oil.
Yes, it browned because he did not wipe the pan between use. Also you use baking soda with buttermilk and baking powder with fresh milk. Not sure how all that raising agent tasted.wll never know😂
Thank you so much for this episode. I really enjoy these type of educational breakdowns! Could you do a food lab series breaking down basic food science? Thank you so much kenji!
Basic stuff for everybody should know but doesn't necessarily know, this is a good explanation of demonstration. One common change would be to add oil as likely required in waffles and how does that work and change the overall outcome. ✌😎
If his book ‘The Food Lab’ is anywhere near as informative as his videos it’s bound to be a gold mine. I think alot of home cooks are a little ashamed to admit they don’t know these simple things, but there’s no shame in learning. Wonderful video.
What Do Baking Soda and Baking Powder Do? The answer is very simple for people who really can think. You can make pancakes without soda or baking powder. They still will become brown. Colour depends on how much you add sugar and how long you keep them in a pan. In this case, your pancakes will be very flat but still tasty. The baking soda you add when your mix does not contain any acidity like yoghurt or lemon juice, for example. Then you will get some bubbles and your pancake or cake with become fluffy. Backing powder already contains the acidity. In this case, if you add the backing powder in a mixture which does not contain any acidity, then your mixture will be fluffy. If you put additional soda in a mix with backing powder or the opposite it will make our mix bitter. Soda never adds flavour but only fluffiness. I do not care about colour. I care about taste. If you want to have brown colour then add a little bit of sugar. Sugar gives a brown colour and a taste. That is why I never have any backing powder in my pantry, but I always have lemon juice and bicarbonate soda. Mix them together and you will get the fluffiness of your pancake or cake.
Love these side by side science experiment videos. One experiment I’d love to see is how much blending affects flavor. When I’m blending things, I try to add the key flavor components at the very end for a last bit of blending. My thinking is that the oxidation of the full blending process destroys the aromatic compounds of things like vanilla or certain spices
Baking powder is made of baking soda plus cream of tartar and cornstarch. So it make sense that the powder is less brown than the soda, but more brown than neither.
Great Video Kenji! Thank you. I love these types of culinary science pieces. You should do one of the different types of flours ie: AP, wheat, potato, rice, etc.
2:20 "...it's lowered the pH of it...". I know that Kenji knows this, but I just want to clarify that it has RAISED the pH of the batter. I believe that it'll increase the alkalinity a bit, but mostly it'll increase the pH. Edit: oh, a few seconds later he says that it raises the pH.
I am quite surprised he did not mention the taste difference baking powder(dont know about soda) can make. In europe at least adding too much baking powder can give pancakes a somewhat unpleasant taste. Only tried it once with a basic batter: wanted some more fluffy pancakes and added almost double the baking powder and the result looked decent but tasted pretty bad
I finally know why I feel like I burn all my pancakes so quickly! I never understood the difference between baking soda and baking powder so I just had pure soda at home, becuase you can use it in other household tasks. Now I know I don't just burn things!
When checking my pan cakes,I tare and touch it to my upper lip to see how moist it is. And a soft squeeze to see how fluffy it is. I look and feel . Cooking is the practical application of chemistry and physics. And you get to eat your results. It's nothing more than an experiment to obtain a desired effect.
Am I the only one who loves thinner, chewier pancakes? In my mind those are "flapjacks" and the fluffy ones are "pancakes" but I'm pretty sure that is just head canon.
I would love to see you do this same test with fried chicken dredge. Maybe popcorn/nugget sized pieces to make it easy, and also explain what the acidity of buttermilk vs other liquids like water or regular milk. Something like a 3x3 matrix with 9 outcomes. water/skim milk made from powder/buttermilk with an equal egg ratio then flour/flour+BP/flour+BS. This is something I've been doing for years (just never at the same time) but since I don't take detailed notes I can't really quantify the differences like browning, crisp vs crunch, longevity of the crunch etc.
Try adding some ricotta to the batter. It's amazing. Better yet, make your own riccota using lemon juice to curddle the cheese. It will come through in your pancakes❤
This is very helpful! I make pancakes pretty much every weekend, and they always look like the extra baking powder version...because the "recipe" I use is mostly based on the containers I use. In one of my two particular metal mixing bowls add 2 1/4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, optionally a dusting (that is a light coating of the whole interior of the bowl) of ground flaxseed, and a dusting of baking powder (which is easier to see if you add the flaxseed), then whisk together. Then in a very specific bowl I bought when I was in college, melt 1/4 cup butter, add 1-2 eggs depending on how expensive they are, dust the eggs with salt, add two little splooshes of vanilla, then slowly fill the bowl up to the topmost blue-ish green decorative line just below the brim with whole milk, gently whisking as you pour the milk so it mixes but doesn't spill. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a silicone spatula to get all of it out of the wet ingredient bowl, then gently whisk or fold it all together to avoid developing the gluten too much. This step is important, and from this video I now realize the pancakes will already be a bit spongy from the amount of baking powder, so overmixing makes it doubly so. I've done this enough times that I can see or feel when something is off at each step, and sometimes I add other things like protein powder or have to substitute ingredients that I don't have (if eggs are REALLY expensive) or want to use up (e.g. this weekend I'll be using up the rest of the half & half I bought for homemade alfredo sauce and for copycat Olive Garden chicken & gnocchi soup). So despite the haphazardness of it all, the pancakes come out pretty uniform the whole time.
Pardon me for the completely unrelated question, but I am seeing recipes for vanilla mash now. So mashed potatoes with vanilla bean paste and sometimes mascarpone cheese. Thoughts? Any experience with this combination?
I'd love to see you do a variation for thinner crispier pancakes (my preference). Not a fan of dense chewy pancakes, nor tall pancakes. I've tried different pancake recipes for 10 years and I'm still searching for the perfect one. Maybe something like a thicker crepe batter with baking powder to provide the lift of a pancake??
After reading both recipes I have to note that these are both BUTTERMILK pancakes. Even General Mills stopped using buttermilk powder in their commercial baking mixes, so how about a recipe that does without this ingredient, is simple for the average home cook and doesn't require anything special? ATK has a recipe on their website, but how about something even simpler, muffin method mixing, that makes a pretty good pancake? Interested?
@J. Kenji Lopez-Alt: At 2:00, you said you added baking soda, RAISING the pH and Raising the alkalinity. Then at 2:23, you said sodium bicarbonate LOWERS the pH. WHICH IS IT? Thanks.
Only because I follow your channel, I was already aware of the powers of baking soda and powder. This is the stuff I come here to learn. Love your content @J. Kenji Lopez-Alt!
In the UK we have strong, plain and self-raising flour. We make Yorkshire puds with plain so that they rise! Why not add a raising agent or use self-raising?
One question: if baking soda makes food brown faster and get mushier in general, why do some people blanch french fries in a baking soda solution before frying? Shouldn't they get mushier instead of crisping up as they claim?
Me too! Both baking soda and baking powder have an impact on the flavor (can be acrid if too much is added). Kenji put a huge amount of baking powder in that last single pancake.
What amount of baking powder did you put in the 3rd batch? It seemed like ALOT-alot. Was it to highlight the characteristics of baking powder? Does it not affect taste? I usually use 1.5 tsp baking powder and 1.5 tsp baking soda in my 4 serving recipes. Is that too little?
I appreciate the demonstration, but I'm wondering if the differences between baking soda and powder would be so apparent if more practical powder/soda to pancake batter ratios were used? I know you said you added a lot of powder/soda to the batter "for the sake of exaggeration", so I assume the results shown here are indeed exaggerated beyond what you'd realistically see in actual recipes?
Hi - 2 points: 4:22 you didn't call out the amount, the quantity. _(Produce with a running script, yaa? /*grin*/)_ And then in the end, by tear comparison, you covered only 2 of the 3! Lovely stuff. Real clear! thanks
I accidentally added too much baking soda to pancake batter once and they ended up having the harsh taste Kenji mentioned plus got a bit of a crumbly texture. After 2-3 bites, had to throw out and start over.
I’d think the cooking range, which varied from approx 298-312 between the different pancakes had to make a difference….overall very interesting, thank you
Deflats like over fermenting pizza dough, also for more "even" Browning wipe away the excess butter, the white parts on a cooked pancake are where pools of butter have accumulated, of course nobody is going to wipe away excess butter 😂😂 I'm just making a point
In Australia baking powder is almost exclusively made of 2 parts tartaric acid (cream of tartar) and 1 part bicarb soda. I spent years trying to work out why American recipes would have "baking power" + "baking soda" in them. Why are they doubling up on the bicarb soda? After much research I realised that what you call baking powder and what we call baking powder are two different things. These days if a recipe calls for both, I just use an equivalent volume of Aussie baking powder.
So what I am confused about are two things... (1) is double acting baking powder worth it? I tried it but it was too metallic tasting. Perhaps a lesser qty required for double acting? (2) does this insight relate to buttermilk pancakes? Buttermilk is more acidic so does that allow more baking powder to be used, and thus netting out as more leavening? That's a guess, but what is the true rationale in this case?
Pro tip: do not add baking soda as a topping thinking it is powdered sugar. Also pro tip, always label your bags.
Make sure you take a quick hit to test the purity before you buy a bag of powder.
Amen
Also if a recipe calls for both do not accidentally switch the amounts for both because your son will notice and retch.
@@buddhavskungfu 👃
😢😂❤
This is EXACTLY how people should learn to cook. Understand why things are added and what they do.
Love your conclusion about how theory empowers you to adjust recipes. This is why I got into Serious Eats and other similar cooking sources.
I’m not watching any more presenters who can’t control themselves from saying Ummm several times a minute.
Oooo I love this. Can you do a vid on cooking beans from dry? Soaking vs. not soaking. Salt no salt. Pressure cooking stove top? Any science behind beans, really.
I've learned that soaked beans have to be fully cooked before I can add my soaked rice. Beans cook much slower once rice is added. This could be good knowledge for one-pot or one-pan meals.
I cook dried beans probably every other day, and here's my advice:
1. If you do it often, invest in an electric pressure cooker e.g. instant pot. The time and convenience savings are large. The only drawback relative to stovetop is that with the stovetop you can test whether they are done at any point, whereas with the pressure cooker you need the time to be dialled in at least somewhat. But there are cooking time tables online for every type of bean that have worked out quite well for me.
2. Salt extends the cooking time by about 25% for me, whether soaked or unsoaked. I have experimented with whether salting the soaking water but then not the boiling water, affects that. I could not tell any difference, both resulted in an approximate 25% increase.
3. How much salt to use is a mystery to me, but I always treat it like I'm salting pasta water and that works out fine. Be conservative, you can salt the beans later if they are under salted.
4. People often say that salting beans before cooking changes the interior texture. I have not noticed this. So I would err on the side of salting them unless you are going to put them in a very salty broth or you are short on cooking time. (Or you don't trust your ability to salt them correctly.)
5. Soaking speeds up the cooking time and probably does nothing else. I have seen a lot of claims about it changing the texture, I have not experienced that at all. Soaking is a good idea if you use the stovetop because it saves a lot of time (30-60 minutes), but with a pressure cooker the time saved is small (5-15 minutes).
6. Consider cooking your beans with flavorings. toss some onion, cumin, garlic, dried mushrooms, whatever you want into the boiling water. You can also cook them in stock (though remember that this also adds salt and cook time has to be adjusted accordingly). After cooking you can remove some larger additions while the smaller ones will just disappear into mush. If you're cooking beans for a stew/gravy this is a great way to up their flavor.
@@karthiktadepalli7560 All good stuff, especially about the salt. I may wait until about 15min before the end to salt.
Also, have you tried frying the soaked dry beans in aeromatics before adding hot water & boiling the rest of the way. It's my favorite way to make fried rice & beans right now.
@@EricLeafericson salting in the middle is a stovetop option so I've never tried it, but could definitely work.
Frying soaked dry beans is an interesting idea, I've never done that...
Pyrex bowl in the oven works good
0:40 “a basic pancake”. Starting with the puns right off the bat huh
Technically the other pancakes were more basic than the basic pancake
🤯
🦇
Nice
Baking soda toothpaste also works wonders with plaque and tartar prevention because of its alkalinity (most oral bacteria are acidophiles) - helps resist biofilm formation.
I've got in to using yeast for my baking recently. I really like the added flavor. It just tastes more wholesome than adding baking powder.
It does take some planning, though.
That's why sourdough pancakes are so much more yummy!
I use sourdough discard a lot in pancakes just so it doesn't go to waste, but I do like it for your same reason.
Besides being delicious, yeast is full of vitamin B and minerals, right?
True! Ages ago we made traditional waffles using yeast and that tasted better than without but you are right in that it takes extra planning. Last year we started doing sourdough pancakes (and waffles too), and it was easier than the yeast version (no need to plan ahead) and maybe even tastier than with just yeast.
In fact, prior to the invention of commercial baking powder in the 1890's (or so), most pancakes were leavened with yeast.
I'm sure I've looked this up more than once but its never been answered so well, and with so much useful information. Sincere thanks!
The best ratio for pancakes I use is 1tsp baking powder & 1 egg to every 1 cup flour, then up to 1 cup of milk or less. This works if doubling the recipe too. I don't like extra b.powder or extra baking soda as it destroys the flavour & makes the pancakes bitter. This is more noticeable as I don't use sugar or butter in the batter.
So far the best pancakes are sour dough where a portion of starter is added to regular pancake batter.
I totally agree with you. It seems you understand the subject. What Do Baking Soda and Baking Powder Do? The answer is very simple for people who really can think. You can make pancakes without soda or baking powder. They still will become brown. Colour depends on how much you add sugar and how long you keep them in a pan. In this case, your pancakes will be very flat but still tasty. The baking soda you add when your mix does not contain any acidity like yoghurt or lemon juice, for example. Then you will get some bubbles and your pancake or cake with become fluffy. Backing powder already contains the acidity. In this case, if you add the backing powder in a mixture which does not contain any acidity, then your mixture will be fluffy. If you put additional soda in a mix with backing powder or the opposite it will make our mix bitter. Soda never adds flavour but only fluffiness. I do not care about colour. I care about taste. If you want to have brown colour then add a little bit of sugar. Sugar gives a brown colour and a taste. That is why I never have any backing powder in my pantry, but I always have lemon juice and bicarbonate soda. Mix them together and you will get the fluffiness of your pancake or cake.
Thank you for posting !
Thanks for the tip about adding baking soda to choc chip cookie mix to get the cookies to brown better. Mine always come out too light and never knew why. Thanks!! Gonna try that
Loving The Recipe Podcast. You and Deb are a great conversational duo, and your discussions are fascinating! Thanks!
Is this podcast weekly ?
Learning music theory allows a guitarist to experiment and be more creative instead of just sticking to written music. This is the same with “cooking theory” and you are the best teacher!!
Wow, I was just looking this up yesterday. Perfect timing. Thank you for demonstrating the differences.
I definitely like the bubbly tops. Just one caveat: don't add too *much* of either one. NOT a good flavor.
I use the americas test kitchen buttermilk pancake recipe, which has both baking powder and soda. Their ‘secret’ ingredient, though, is sour cream. 1/4 cup for a standard recipe, the pancakes brown beautifully and it makes them rise even higher (big bubbles!) and they’re just the slightest bit tangy. Amazing.
I think the main cause of confusion about baking powder vs. baking soda is a linguistic one: American English calls both of these substances "baking [something]." If we had fundamentally different names for these two fine white powders (which other English-speaking regions and other languages have), we wouldn't be so confused about them.
yeah in Australia we use the words bicarb (shortened bicarbonate of soda) and baking soda interchangably - so far as i know baking powder has always just been baking powder. If we kept baking soda as bicarb then you wouldn't run the risk of accidently putting in a ton of baking soda in haha
@@tristanclearysame in sweden, bikarbonat & bakpulver
Natron and Backpulver in Germany, hard to mix up :D
I would eat every one of these Pancakes smothered in butter and real maple syrup.
But I am blown away by the explination of Chemistry involved into something so simple as PANCAKES lol
Explanation
@@dcwatashi Tank chu fo corecting my spelting mastake on a U Tube Coment lol
@@radicalmoderate2730U R welcome
Great video and thanks for sharing but your pup got my entire attention. He was looking at you like “dude, who are you talking to?” Classic! 😂❤🐶
Thanks. This was helpful and clear, if a bit waffling.
I discovered that baking soda will also remove some of the "canned taste" (maybe you'd call it a metallic taste) from canned corn and other canned vegetables. It has to soak in a baking soda solution for a few minutes, and then you have to rinse it very well. Have you heard of this, Kenji, and can you explain it?
You're insane
@@tommydillsNot. It seems to make a difference. Since I get free canned food, and baking soda is cheap, I do it. Baking soda is good for a lot of things besides baking. Chemistry.
Nice! Just listened to the podcast with Deb and you while mowing the yard this morning!
Please make a video thoroughly explaining the science how baking-soda makes cheaper and/or leaner cuts of meats tender and juicier after cooking. 🙂
I rly love vids like this when it comes to cooking; it helps a ton to rly know the science side of things here and get a better idea of how these seemingly basic ingredients work, so one can better adapt their own cookin
Love these kinds of vids! As someone who has started cooking due to living on my own this really helps
Thank you for this video! It was fun to watch and learn exactly what each agent does.
I think you missed that chemistry class about baking soda and leavening....
For the most part, that baking soda DID NOT react with acids in the regular recipe (as much as with the weak acid in the powder), but THERMAL DECOMPOSITION broke that BIcarbonate into sodium carbonate, as well as gaseous carbon dioxide (which makes a buttload of "bubbles" in the pancake), as well as water, in the form of steam (also a gas which is making bubbles), which helps rise the pancake even more.
"Double acting" refers to the gas release during the liquid phase in mixing as you said, and the heat reaction, which is the same as in the baking soda decomp.
But, I love it when science meets the kitchen, and I definitely plan on checking out your book! Thanks.
At what temperature does the decomposition take place? A bit off topic but I use this trick to make bagels by just using boiling water which seems to work fine. I see others going thorough this laborious process of baking the bicarbonate for hours in the oven to turn it into sodium carbonate which seems to be a wast of time and energy when boiling water does the trick. ]
From experience I know that bicarbonate siting in water from 24 to 48 hours at room temp turns to carbonate on its own.
In Kenjis defense(sort of) his basic recipe has buttermilk and I know for a fact that those acids directly interact with baking soda at room temp to some extent. On the other hand getting the buttermilk to baking soda ratio could be trial and error.
I learned from one of the America's Test Kitchen videos that oil droplets are the cause of uneven browning on pancakes. You actually want to wipe off the oil from your pan with a paper towel if you want solid brown pancakes.
I learned this from home cooking years ago ❤
Ah i did notice that a few days ago when baking pancakes. My gf wiped and got really even browning, i didnt and mine were less evenly browned
Calling captain heterogeneity (Regusea). :)
I saw that episode too! And I'd like to add since the purchase of my cast iron I haven't put oil in my skillet when I do pancakes. The first pancake is much nicer (no dotted patterns) than when I used to do it in my non-stick with oil.
Yes, it browned because he did not wipe the pan between use. Also you use baking soda with buttermilk and baking powder with fresh milk. Not sure how all that raising agent tasted.wll never know😂
I’ve never been so invested in three little pancakes in my life 😂
I've always wanted my pancakes a bit darker, so this great information.
Thank you very helpful. This will be great to try with folding and scrambled eggs.
Thank you so much for this episode. I really enjoy these type of educational breakdowns! Could you do a food lab series breaking down basic food science? Thank you so much kenji!
Excellent companion piece to the podcast! Really enjoyed some pancake talk on my commute this morning - great work as always!
Basic stuff for everybody should know but doesn't necessarily know, this is a good explanation of demonstration.
One common change would be to add oil as likely required in waffles and how does that work and change the overall outcome.
✌😎
You lost me at the pH . More Bicarbonate means less acidic means higher pH, right? Love this style of your videos ❤
You're right!
i think when he first says 'lowers the pH', he misspoke and meant higher
Maybe he wasn’t sure exactly what’s happening …
Baking soda helps browning and powder helps leavening
If his book ‘The Food Lab’ is anywhere near as informative as his videos it’s bound to be a gold mine. I think alot of home cooks are a little ashamed to admit they don’t know these simple things, but there’s no shame in learning. Wonderful video.
I'm gonna show my high school foods class this on Monday! Love your videos - super informative!
What Do Baking Soda and Baking Powder Do? The answer is very simple for people who really can think. You can make pancakes without soda or baking powder. They still will become brown. Colour depends on how much you add sugar and how long you keep them in a pan. In this case, your pancakes will be very flat but still tasty. The baking soda you add when your mix does not contain any acidity like yoghurt or lemon juice, for example. Then you will get some bubbles and your pancake or cake with become fluffy. Backing powder already contains the acidity. In this case, if you add the backing powder in a mixture which does not contain any acidity, then your mixture will be fluffy. If you put additional soda in a mix with backing powder or the opposite it will make our mix bitter. Soda never adds flavour but only fluffiness. I do not care about colour. I care about taste. If you want to have brown colour then add a little bit of sugar. Sugar gives a brown colour and a taste. That is why I never have any backing powder in my pantry, but I always have lemon juice and bicarbonate soda. Mix them together and you will get the fluffiness of your pancake or cake.
wish you should have shown the crumb structure of the one with baking soda. strange that it wasn't shown.
I always remember it as baking Soda = Shade for more or less browning
Baking Powder = Puffy for more or less leavening
Wow! I love this video! I saw your cook and I love it... I will be sending away for it soon. Thanks for all you do...
Thanks I never fully understood these powders
I love this.
For Kenji or anyone else: What do you think is the upper limit for using baking soda, before it affects the flavour?
Was also wondering exactly this.
Love these side by side science experiment videos. One experiment I’d love to see is how much blending affects flavor. When I’m blending things, I try to add the key flavor components at the very end for a last bit of blending. My thinking is that the oxidation of the full blending process destroys the aromatic compounds of things like vanilla or certain spices
Kenji didn't show the baking powder pancake going into the pan. Curious... #bakingpowderconspiracy
I love how Kenji explains “how sausage is made” for pancakes. 👍🏻
i was just wondering about this the other day when i made pancakes! you read my mind kenji!
The difference between powder and phawder . srsly good stuff, Ive wondered about this for some time now
Baking powder is made of baking soda plus cream of tartar and cornstarch. So it make sense that the powder is less brown than the soda, but more brown than neither.
Great Video Kenji! Thank you. I love these types of culinary science pieces. You should do one of the different types of flours ie: AP, wheat, potato, rice, etc.
Those pans seem so cool. Id love to get one, one day!
I've got one of those Solidteknics skillets, great cookware!
"We wanted to compare apples to apples."
But these are all pancakes!
2:20 "...it's lowered the pH of it...". I know that Kenji knows this, but I just want to clarify that it has RAISED the pH of the batter. I believe that it'll increase the alkalinity a bit, but mostly it'll increase the pH.
Edit: oh, a few seconds later he says that it raises the pH.
Thanks for sharing this video. Very helpful 👍🏾
I am quite surprised he did not mention the taste difference baking powder(dont know about soda) can make. In europe at least adding too much baking powder can give pancakes a somewhat unpleasant taste.
Only tried it once with a basic batter: wanted some more fluffy pancakes and added almost double the baking powder and the result looked decent but tasted pretty bad
Part of that could be the alkalinity. Alkalis tend to taste bitter.
You have a nice collection of cookware sir. Solidteknics is good stuff.
I finally know why I feel like I burn all my pancakes so quickly! I never understood the difference between baking soda and baking powder so I just had pure soda at home, becuase you can use it in other household tasks. Now I know I don't just burn things!
the video i didnt think i needed!
When checking my pan cakes,I tare and touch it to my upper lip to see how moist it is. And a soft squeeze to see how fluffy it is. I look and feel .
Cooking is the practical application of chemistry and physics. And you get to eat your results.
It's nothing more than an experiment to obtain a desired effect.
Am I the only one who loves thinner, chewier pancakes? In my mind those are "flapjacks" and the fluffy ones are "pancakes" but I'm pretty sure that is just head canon.
What do alkaline environments do to the breakdown of what? Cells? You cut at 2:50-2:54
I would love to see you do this same test with fried chicken dredge. Maybe popcorn/nugget sized pieces to make it easy, and also explain what the acidity of buttermilk vs other liquids like water or regular milk. Something like a 3x3 matrix with 9 outcomes. water/skim milk made from powder/buttermilk with an equal egg ratio then flour/flour+BP/flour+BS. This is something I've been doing for years (just never at the same time) but since I don't take detailed notes I can't really quantify the differences like browning, crisp vs crunch, longevity of the crunch etc.
Try adding some ricotta to the batter. It's amazing. Better yet, make your own riccota using lemon juice to curddle the cheese. It will come through in your pancakes❤
Great demonstration! Thank you!
Thanks for this and I love the kids station.
I see you are using an Australian Solidteknics frypan! I love using this pan, my absolute favourite 😍
Chef John taught me the wings with backing soda tip 😌 works like a charm
Pancakes? Pikelets thank you for Australian
Thank you ; have always wondered what and why I should really be adding
You are my cooking god, Kenji.
This is very helpful! I make pancakes pretty much every weekend, and they always look like the extra baking powder version...because the "recipe" I use is mostly based on the containers I use.
In one of my two particular metal mixing bowls add 2 1/4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, optionally a dusting (that is a light coating of the whole interior of the bowl) of ground flaxseed, and a dusting of baking powder (which is easier to see if you add the flaxseed), then whisk together. Then in a very specific bowl I bought when I was in college, melt 1/4 cup butter, add 1-2 eggs depending on how expensive they are, dust the eggs with salt, add two little splooshes of vanilla, then slowly fill the bowl up to the topmost blue-ish green decorative line just below the brim with whole milk, gently whisking as you pour the milk so it mixes but doesn't spill. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a silicone spatula to get all of it out of the wet ingredient bowl, then gently whisk or fold it all together to avoid developing the gluten too much. This step is important, and from this video I now realize the pancakes will already be a bit spongy from the amount of baking powder, so overmixing makes it doubly so.
I've done this enough times that I can see or feel when something is off at each step, and sometimes I add other things like protein powder or have to substitute ingredients that I don't have (if eggs are REALLY expensive) or want to use up (e.g. this weekend I'll be using up the rest of the half & half I bought for homemade alfredo sauce and for copycat Olive Garden chicken & gnocchi soup). So despite the haphazardness of it all, the pancakes come out pretty uniform the whole time.
Pardon me for the completely unrelated question, but I am seeing recipes for vanilla mash now. So mashed potatoes with vanilla bean paste and sometimes mascarpone cheese. Thoughts? Any experience with this combination?
Thank you for your lovely compliment. I hope my recipe was able to help you in your cooking
I'd love to see you do a variation for thinner crispier pancakes (my preference). Not a fan of dense chewy pancakes, nor tall pancakes. I've tried different pancake recipes for 10 years and I'm still searching for the perfect one. Maybe something like a thicker crepe batter with baking powder to provide the lift of a pancake??
After reading both recipes I have to note that these are both BUTTERMILK pancakes. Even General Mills stopped using buttermilk powder in their commercial baking mixes, so how about a recipe that does without this ingredient, is simple for the average home cook and doesn't require anything special? ATK has a recipe on their website, but how about something even simpler, muffin method mixing, that makes a pretty good pancake? Interested?
Great explanation. I always wanted to know. Thank you
This is one of those videos you watch and then pretend you knew all along when the subject comes up in conversation.
@J. Kenji Lopez-Alt: At 2:00, you said you added baking soda, RAISING the pH and Raising the alkalinity. Then at 2:23, you said sodium bicarbonate LOWERS the pH. WHICH IS IT? Thanks.
Only because I follow your channel, I was already aware of the powers of baking soda and powder. This is the stuff I come here to learn. Love your content @J. Kenji Lopez-Alt!
Really interesting! But now I want pancakes...
Thank you for your lovely compliment. I hope my recipe was able to help you in your cooking
Wow, now that was something informative and useful. Thanks!
Thank you! Great and informative video!
Thank you for doing that. I love homemade pancakes. It's a skill to be able to make good ones. Pancakes are always a good idea.😀
The first one is almost always lighter. I would have cooked one too discard, then another with the original recipe for comparison.
In the UK we have strong, plain and self-raising flour. We make Yorkshire puds with plain so that they rise! Why not add a raising agent or use self-raising?
Fluffiest possible pancake gang here. I’m curious what the upper limit of baking powder is before it starts to deflate.
B4 it deflates or tastes like too much bak powd
If you truly want the fluffiest - look up japanese souffle pancakes.
@@tristancleary They are interesting, but different...
My mom used to be a fan of the fluffiest (tallest) pancake and we found a recipe for a 1" high pancake! The recipe delivered but... it was so dry!
One question: if baking soda makes food brown faster and get mushier in general, why do some people blanch french fries in a baking soda solution before frying? Shouldn't they get mushier instead of crisping up as they claim?
I'm curious, how do these changes impact the taste of the pancakes, if at all?
Me too! Both baking soda and baking powder have an impact on the flavor (can be acrid if too much is added). Kenji put a huge amount of baking powder in that last single pancake.
What amount of baking powder did you put in the 3rd batch?
It seemed like ALOT-alot. Was it to highlight the characteristics of baking powder? Does it not affect taste?
I usually use 1.5 tsp baking powder and 1.5 tsp baking soda in my 4 serving recipes. Is that too little?
I was wondering that too!
I appreciate the demonstration, but I'm wondering if the differences between baking soda and powder would be so apparent if more practical powder/soda to pancake batter ratios were used? I know you said you added a lot of powder/soda to the batter "for the sake of exaggeration", so I assume the results shown here are indeed exaggerated beyond what you'd realistically see in actual recipes?
Now I know why my choc chip cookie recipe calls for baking soda! Always wondered , thanks!!
I would like to hear more about the taste difference between the 2 of them and at what concentration it is altered.
Hi - 2 points:
4:22 you didn't call out the amount, the quantity. _(Produce with a running script, yaa? /*grin*/)_
And then in the end, by tear comparison, you covered only 2 of the 3!
Lovely stuff. Real clear!
thanks
What is the taste like.......Which is a nice preference for a decent texture and tasting less salty.....
The Breville induction top!!!! I want one sooooo bad. $$$$ as heck.
Fascinating and helpful!
I accidentally added too much baking soda to pancake batter once and they ended up having the harsh taste Kenji mentioned plus got a bit of a crumbly texture. After 2-3 bites, had to throw out and start over.
I’d think the cooking range, which varied from approx 298-312 between the different pancakes had to make a difference….overall very interesting, thank you
Deflats like over fermenting pizza dough, also for more "even" Browning wipe away the excess butter, the white parts on a cooked pancake are where pools of butter have accumulated, of course nobody is going to wipe away excess butter 😂😂 I'm just making a point
I always add extra baking soda to my pancakes and biscuits because I like the flavor, in biscuits especially.
Your basically adding salt
In Australia baking powder is almost exclusively made of 2 parts tartaric acid (cream of tartar) and 1 part bicarb soda. I spent years trying to work out why American recipes would have "baking power" + "baking soda" in them. Why are they doubling up on the bicarb soda? After much research I realised that what you call baking powder and what we call baking powder are two different things. These days if a recipe calls for both, I just use an equivalent volume of Aussie baking powder.
What about getting them crispy? Does one or the other do better, or is it more in the cooking method?
So what I am confused about are two things...
(1) is double acting baking powder worth it? I tried it but it was too metallic tasting. Perhaps a lesser qty required for double acting?
(2) does this insight relate to buttermilk pancakes? Buttermilk is more acidic so does that allow more baking powder to be used, and thus netting out as more leavening? That's a guess, but what is the true rationale in this case?