Soda was [Sca-cooks] steam-baking

[Susan Fox-Davis]

> Also sprach Decker, Terry D.:
> >There is a little difference between sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and washing
> >soda (Na2CO3.10H2O).  Washing soda is sodium carbonate decahydrate, or
> >sodium carbonate with ten water molecules bonded to it.  Sodium carbonate is
> >a white powder.  Washing soda is transparent and crystalline.  The modern
> >process for manufacturing sodium carbonate first produces sodium carbonate
> >decahydrate which is then heated to release the water molecules.  For our
> >purposes, they are interchangeable.
>
> Okay, I'll go with this. I believe my idea that washing soda and
> sodium carbonate were the same thing comes from Flower and Rosenbaum.
> The point would seem to hinge on whether you can use washing soda in
> this way without it being more poisonous than, say, baking soda, and
> whether there's any reason to believe it's more what this Yuan recipe
> had in mind by saying "soda".
>
> Adamantius

My question is:  where did the Chinese get soda in the Qan's time?  Is this a
period ingredient, or some redactor's addition to appeal to modern tastes?

Selene, Caid