Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder
Key Differences
What is Baking Soda?
Baking sodium or sodium bicarbonate is a chemical substance that is present in a white solid that is crystalline. However it is also found in powder in addition to crystalline form. Its chemical formula is NaHCO3 (sodium bicarbonate or chemical nomenclature name – sodium hydrogen carbonate). Other name of baking soda is bicarbonate of soda, bread soda, cooking soda and nahcolite. Baking soda is largely used in as pest control (to kill cockroaches), paint and corrosion removal (sodablasting), pH balancer (to raise pH levels in pools, spas, and garden ponds), mild disinfectant (work as an effective fungicide against some organism),fire extinguisher (used to remove low level electrical fires), cooking (cakes, quick breads, fried foods, baked foods, and soda bread), neutralization of acids and bases, medical uses, personal hygiene, in sports, as a cleaning agent, as a cleaning agent, as a biopesticide, and as a cattle feed supplements.
What is Baking Powder?
Baking powder is a dry chemical raising agent and is mixture of bicarbonate and a weak acid. The main purpose of baking powder is to increase the structure or volume and lightening the texture of any baked food. It is mostly used as substitute of yeast for end-products where fermentation flavours would be undesirable. A five grams of teaspoon can raise a mixture of 125 gram if cup of flour, one cup of liquid and one egg. In any food or product, it works by emitting the carbon dioxide gas into a batter via acid-base reaction, generating bubbles in the wet mixture to expand the volume and thus raising the mixture. The reason behind the name of quick-breads is that, in quick breads, carbon dioxide is emitted at a faster rate via acid-base reaction as compared to fermentation.
