Dangerous Bread

I laughed out loud the first time I read this in the 1918 Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 1, imagining the debate about the fatal characteristics of muffins.

“HOT BREADS IN THE DIET

The popular opinion of most persons is that hot [quick] breads are injurious. It is perhaps true that they may be injurious to individuals afflicted with some digestive disturbance, but, at any rate, the harmful effect may be reduced to a minimum by the correct preparation and baking of these foods.

As baking powders vary in price, so do they vary in their keeping qualities, their effectiveness, and their tendency toward being injurious. Most phosphate and alum powders do not keep so well as the cream-of-tartar powders, and the longer they are kept, the less effective do they become. The powders that contain phosphate yield more gas for each teaspoonful used than do the other varieties. Much controversy has taken place with regard to the different kinds of baking powder and their effects on the digestive tract, but authorities have not yet agreed on this matter. However, if foods made with the aid of baking powders are not used excessively, no concern need be felt as to their injurious effect. The housewife in her choice of baking powder should be guided by the price she can afford to pay and the results she is able to get after she has become well informed as to the effect of the different varieties. She may easily become familiar with the composition of baking powder, for a statement of what substances each kind contains is generally found on the label of every variety. This information is invaluable to the housewife, as it will assist her considerably in making a selection.”

However, on further investigation, and with the knowledge that sometimes my scones or biscuits taste slightly bitter which I suspected was too much baking powder, I have found there is a whole lot to baking powder that I never had considered before. Baking powder is a combination of an alkaline (baking soda) and an acid (cream of tartar or, quite often, some form of aluminum sulfate or aluminum phosphate).  While I don’t worry about its impact on my digestion, the idea of ingesting aluminum which has been linked to Alzheimer’s among other things is not exactly appealing. I rarely even wear antiperspirant for the same reason. Why would I avoid smearing it on my skin and then wash some aluminum down with my morning tea? Turns out that aluminum explains that “off” taste sometimes: it’s metallic.

Finding a “no aluminum” baking powder proved harder than I imagined. I went to 3 grocery stores before I found any, and by then I had already bought cream of tartar and simply been making my own for a week. Basically it’s one part baking soda to 2 parts cream of tartar. Lemon juice or vinegar can also be used to supply the necessary acidity to get things bubbling but it’s much less easy to get accurate results. Since I’ve made the switch, I haven’t had funny tasting biscuits since, and my memory has improved 100%! Okay, my memory still sucks, but avoiding aluminum can’t hurt.

I guess the moral of the story is not to dismiss these old health concerns as silly until you’ve checked your ingredients!