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Simple question: can you generally use baking soda to cancel acidity in your dishes?

For instance, sometimes tomato sauce is too acidic, or you put too much vinegar in some dish, etc.

The simple acid$+$basic$=0$ concept should make it work, but do you get undesirable side effects?

  • The production of CO₂ should not be that much of a problem if you let your dish breath a bit after adding baking soda.
  • I guess the reaction is exothermic, so maybe you get heating…
  • I'm not sure if you can get a a chemical reaction producing harmful stuff, depending on the type of acid you start with.

So, what's the verdict?

user76575
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    There will probably be some *salts* created as a by-product of the acid-base neutralization. But this would be a *salt* in a broad chemistry sense, and not necessarily sodium-chloride *table-salt* which you would normally use for cooking. – brhans Jul 16 '19 at 15:30
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    @brhans If baking soda is used, one of the ions in the produced salt will indeed be sodium and will taste like sodium does. – Bryan Krause Jul 16 '19 at 15:42
  • @BryanKrause and how does *that* taste? – user76575 Jul 16 '19 at 15:44
  • Salty, typically :) If you were to add it to vinegar, say, you would get sodium acetate as the remaining product, which tastes salty. If you use a lot of it frequently, you'd also have all the same dietary concerns as with adding a lot of dietary salt (which likely doesn't matter much for healthy individuals given enough water, but can be a big problem for others). – Bryan Krause Jul 16 '19 at 15:44
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    For your tomato sauce example, typically the solution is to add sweetness: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/5/in-a-tomato-sauce-recipe-how-can-i-cut-the-acidity suggests either carmelized onion or sugar. These won't actually reduce acidity, of course, but they will reduce the perception of acidity, much like how lemonade is very acidic but does not taste nearly as acidic as an equivalent amount of lemon juice diluted in water. – Bryan Krause Jul 16 '19 at 15:50
  • Not 100% sure about food, but you can use baking soda to neutralize acid. I do this procedure when cleaning rocks/minerals using muriatic acid. I would think if you use it in food, it will make it taste a bit differently. When I use it, the liquids is dumped in the lawn after – Huangism Jul 16 '19 at 17:50
  • I agree that the main concern is sodium which should be reduced in our diets, not added. As for table-sugar, acidity breaks the bond between frutcose and glucose, thus the acidity of the solution is reduced. – Francesco Zambolin Jul 16 '19 at 19:50
  • Some people on this site say they use calcium carbonate. That sounds really cool as you would reduce acidity and won't get any sodium out of it. – Francesco Zambolin Jul 16 '19 at 19:59
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    @FrancescoZambolin https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/24733/is-it-incorrect-when-someones-says-you-can-lower-acidity-with-sweetness "acidity breaks the bond between fructose and glucose, thus the acidity of the solution is reduced" is not correct. The reaction proceeds faster in an acidic environment, but the OH- is added to one sugar and H+ added to the other; it is water that is used up, not acid. The sourness (acid perception) is reduced, not the acidity. – Bryan Krause Jul 16 '19 at 21:45
  • Interesting remark about the calcium carbonate. It doesn't produce anything bad it seems? – user76575 Jul 17 '19 at 05:03
  • Calcium carbonate is not that much soluble. Carbonic acid isn't necessarily displaced by acids typically found in food, of which acetic acid - though generally added by the cooker - is an example. – Alchimista Jul 17 '19 at 09:09
  • Interesting question. Beside you can discard heating as a possible trouble source, what you say in the Q is correct. And indeed acidity and sourness go alongside. However this trick is not common/suggested, at least it seems so. Likely its cons in terms of taste overcome the pros. It might be a pretty salty-bitter taste eventually accompanied by a lye-ish sensation, especially in dressing. Health concerns should be non existing (except for the mentioned sodium intake on a regular basis) so we could in principle sacrifice a lil bowl of lettuce and do an experiment. – Alchimista Jul 17 '19 at 09:24

3 Answers3

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I regularly use baking soda for that purpose to protect what is remaining of my enamel. To allow for the increase in volume as a result of any foaming, use a large container so that the top of the liquid does not go higher than the 3/4 mark.

It is also advisable to leave it overnight in the fridge to let the baking soda dissolve completely.

The taste is slightly saltier. You may want to start with a ratio of a teaspoon to a liter of fluid.

Backyard Chef
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Baking soda is ok but what I found work better is honey. Especially in dishes that gain from sugar. Like for example tomato sauce. Sugar neutralize the acidic while not adding extra taste (like soda does) but just the sweetens that can embellish herbs. Honey (especially if you have honeydew honey that have this natural "forest" feel).

SZCZERZO KŁY
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The classical way to take the acid (taste, not literal acid) out of tomato sauce is a small amount of sugar (like a teaspoon). I can't say I have put too much vinegar in anything, but I'd imagine the same method would work in that case.

Baking soda is a base, and will chemically neutralize acids, that's true. But as someone else points out it has a taste of its own, and not a very good one at that. And the taste of vinegar is not entirely based on its pure acid content. So chemically neutralizing alone isn't all there is to overcoming a too-strong taste.

There is chemistry in cooking, plenty of it, but cooking goes beyond that. The physiology/neurology component is also important.