Substitute for baking soda/powder?

[Shazzie]

Is there one? I want to make some macro-puddings (the old-school kind).

[Klara]

Hi again,

There's two ways to approach mb (imho) - going from your old diet and trying to substitute - or realizing this is a different approach, and welcoming the newness - and then there's doing both, a little of this, a little of that.

I don't remember baking soda/or powder for puddings I used to make - but you will find those ingredients in some mb cookbooks. And I do remember thinking for a long time they were ok, as I also used them in cooking classes I'd taken. Now my understanding is that they are quite yin (expansive) and not so recommended. For pudding effect, alot of ways can be done (do you have any cookbooks?) - kanten made with agar can be blended (again, electricity is not ideal, but I'm still at the stage where once in a while it's not so bad), kuzu is a great ingredient for thickening food, and sometimes a combination of kuzu and agar can be used, but for agar, it is best to follow a recipe exactly as too little it won't work, and too much it won't be edible. Amasake added to anything will create a wonderful sweet pudding like texture. Tofu also can do that, but tofu isn't high on the recommended foods to have too much of.

Gary has a recipe section here and has a great chestnut cream, which has the pudding texture you want.

What is it you want to make??

Klara

[Shazzie]

Hi, Klara,

I'm trying to make a breadish pudding, the English kind, but with pears. There's a great recipe in Lorna Sass's fabulous cookbook "The Ecological Kitchen," but it has baking soda in it. I was looking for a different ingredient that might do something similar but not be quite so yin.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Shazz

[rickfrank]

Bread pudding?
I think it doesn't really need that leavening, perhaps just leave it out. Know that it will be fairly heavy and yang. Or just use half the amount of baking powder.
Another option to try: mix in a little sourdough starter, let it sit in a warm place for a few hours, then cook the pudding.
-Rick Frank
Boston, MA

[furrbrain]

In Britain, a "Yorkshire Pudding" is a flatbread. It's made like an eggy dough. Like what's known as a popover in the USA. In fact my first wife made it with a popover mix. Picture a pizza without toppings.

[Bruce Paine]

First of all, furrbrain, the posts that you are responding to are over a year old so it is possible that the folks you are responding to are no longer paying attention to this forum.

But if Shazzie was or is still here I would recommend that s/he try contacting Lorna Sass for the baking soda alternative, first.

Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen is 16 years old and Lorna might have learned a few things since she wrote that book.

Many years ago when I was living in Southern California where it hot and dry I found myself having a strong attraction to the mesoAmerican foods made with masa and during the peak of the summer attracted to masa made with tequesquite which is a natural alkaline form of bicarbonate of soda that lightens the masa causing it to have a more spongy texture.

A cook at the Los Angeles East West Center for Macrobiotics run by Roy Steevensz back in the early 1980s made a corn bread using light colored miso as the leavener so it might be a good alternative to baking soda.

Rebecca Wood in her The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Resource for Healthy Eating suggests making a natural baking powder using cream of tartar, baking soda, and arrowroot.

She says that "when baking powder is mixed into a batter, carbon dioxide gas is released from sodium (baking soda in our recipe) by the action of a acid or an acid salt (here cream of tarter, the natural residue that occurs in juiced grapes). A moisture absorber such as arrowroot inhibits a premature reaction."

Since arrowroot is more yin than kuzu, I wonder how kuzu would work in place of arrowroot?

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[furrbrain]

Yeah I know, I was reading through and if they aren't around anymore, it'll be good reference.

Where do you find out about the yin/yang properties of foods? Is there a dictionary?