[Sca-cooks] Baker's borax from the other side.

Laura C. Minnick lcm at jeffnet.org
Wed Sep 25 03:40:56 PDT 2013


On 9/25/2013 12:24 AM, David Friedman wrote:
>
> One of my al-Warraq puzzles is baker's borax. It's chief use seems to 
> have been to make bread loaves shiny. So instead of asking "does 
> baking soda make bread shiny," baking soda being one possible guess 
> for baker's borax, we could look at the question from the other side:
>
> What chemical that could have been available to al-Warraq would make 
> bread shiny? Is there any such chemical that would also work as a 
> chemical leavening? Alternatively, are there two chemicals, one of 
> which makes bread shiny and one of which works as a leavening, that 
> might have been found together in nature?
>
> I should add that my first experiment with painting a solution of 
> baking soda on bread was a failure--the half of the loaf I put it on 
> came out browner, not shinier. But I will try again with a lighter touch.
>
> Also that, on current evidence, possible candidates for samidh flour 
> include fine semolina, 00 flour, and ordinary white flour, with the 
> fine semolina perhaps a little ahead of the others.
>

Pretzels and bagels are shiny. What are they brushed with?

Liutgard

-- 
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our 
abilities." -Albus Dumbledore ~~~Follow my Queenly perambulations at: 
http://slugcrossings.blogspot.com/



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