12. SODA AND CREAM OF TARTAR.--Some housewives are inclined to use soda
and cream of tartar for leavening purposes; but there is really no
advantage in doing this when baking powder can be obtained, for some
baking powders are a combination of these two ingredients and produce
the same result. In fact, the housewife cannot measure soda and cream of
tartar so accurately as the chemist can combine them in the manufacture
of baking powder. Nevertheless, if their use is preferred, they should
be measured in the proportion of _twice as much cream of tartar as
soda._ As in the case of soda alone, these leavening agents should be
sifted with the dry ingredients. A small quantity of cream of tartar is
used without soda in such mixtures as angel-food cake, in which egg
white alone is used to make the mixture light. The addition of the cream
of tartar has the effect of so solidifying the egg white that it holds
up until the heat of the oven hardens it permanently.
13. BAKING POWDER.--Without doubt, baking powder is the most
satisfactory of the chemical leavening agents. It comes in three
varieties, but they are all similar in composition, for each contains an
alkali in the form of soda and an acid of some kind, as well as a filler
of starch, which serves to prevent the acid and the alkali from acting
upon each other.
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