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

[David Friedman]

As I may have mentioned earlier, "Armenian borax" in the notes to 
al-Warraq is given as an alternate name for Baker's borax. Of course, I 
don't know if that's the same thing now called Armenain borax, but it 
might be. Would it be safe to eat in small quantities? Any idea what in 
practice is found with the borax in Armenia?

Checking Wikipedia, borax apparently is used as a food additive, but is 
also banned in some countries--sounds as though it is dangerous only 
with high consumption over extended time.

Described as "looks like white ground flour."

No suggestion that it works as a leavening, which makes me suspect that 
borax pentahydrate is the purified chemical, what was mined in Armenia 
in period a mixture of that with other things which might include baking 
soda.



On 9/25/13 9:06 AM, Terry Decker wrote:
> What you are talking about is a Maillard reaction, where the dough is 
> glazed by dropping it briefly in a high pH (basic) solution.  It 
> produces the shiny dark brown color on pretzels and pretzel bread.  
> It's a a common glaze on a number of German breads.  The common 
> chemicals used produce the reaction, in order of efficiency, are lye 
> (potassium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide), washing 
> soda (sodium carbonate) and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).  
> Potassium hydroxide has a pH of about 14, sodium hydroxide is around 
> 13, baking soda comes in at 8.3, Armenian borax (borax pentahydrate, a 
> form of borax) clocks in around 9.5.
>
> IIRC, all of these compound are produced by shallow water deposition 
> and evaporation (alkali pools), so multiple compounds are probably 
> quite common. Unfortunately, the process of leavening is different 
> from the process of glazing.
>
> I've only experimjented with the technique a couple of times, so my 
> empiric knowledge is limited.
>
> Bear
>
>
>> 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.
>>
>> -- 
>> David Friedman
>
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-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/