[Sca-cooks] Natron

[Carol Eskesen Smith]

Uh, Drakey - please take heed, before you ruin a perfectly good batch of pop corn -

Sodium Carbonate would be BASIC, not acidic.  The sodium ion in solution is a strong base, while the carbonate is a weak acid.  Potassium chloride, like sodium chloride, would be neutral; strong positive, and strong negative combine to neutral.  (We're talking lye and hydrochloric acid for the base/acid combination when salt is dissolved, as opposed to lye and carbonic acid for the results of dissolving sodium carbonate.)

Regards,
Brekke

----- Original Message -----
From: Terry Decker
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 12:03 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Natron

> --- Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>> >From the recipe, it looks as though sodium carbonate may be used as a
>> substitute for sodium chloride, thus a seasoning.
>
>
> How similar in flavor are sodium carbonate and sodium chloride???  Anyone  
> have any sodium
> carbonate they care to sprinkle over some popcorn and offer up their  
> opinion?
>
> William de Grandfort

They aren't particularly close in flavor, but remember that this is mixed  
into a recipe rather than sprinkled on top.  As a salt, sodium carbonate  
does provide a mild acidic taste to combat flat taste.  It would be similar  
to our use of potassium chloride as a salt substitute these days.  Not the  
same as sodium chloride, but noticeable.

Rather than focusing on just one small use for sodium carbonate, you really  
need to look at how sodium chloride/carbonate/nitrate and potassium  
chloride/carbonate/nitrate have been used over time and the chemical  
properties in various situations.

Bear  

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