[Sca-cooks] baking soda vs. baking powder

[adamantius at verizon.net]

> 
> From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
> Date: 2003/09/04 Thu AM 05:59:36 CDT
> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] baking soda vs. baking powder
> 
> If the taste is off, then the odds are you used to much leavening.  Both
> baking soda and baking powder are alkalis and if you use to much you get a
> bitter after taste, which is what you want with a proper Irish soda bread,

I've never heard this before. It was always my understanding that soda bread 
uses an appropriate combination of soda and acid (generally sour milk, not 
buttermilk, and we won't even discuss effete fripperies like currants or 
caraway seeds) to produce the standard byproducts of mixing soda and acid: 
water, CO2, and salt, with as little as possible of either the soda or the acid 
left over.

Am I to assume the bitter aftertaste is the result of using too much soda?

Adamantius