Vinegar in baking question

Sounds like it's there to increase the acidity. You could also try lemon juice.

In any case, if it's only one T I think you're safe leaving it out.

Thanks!! I am really dying for some chocolate right now but not enough to make a trip to the store for vinegar! :)

If the leavening agent in your recipe is baking soda, then you probably need the vinegar. Decreasing the pH will reducing browning and increase tenderness, but I bet that it is there to react with the baking soda. If the leavening agent is baking powder only, then you will probably be OK.

Question...If it hadn't been baking powder for my recipe, but instead it had been baking soda, could I have changed the baking soda for baking powder and just not worried about the vinegar? What's the difference? Thanks! I love the quick response to comments:) I'm learning something here! Beth

Baking powder is baking soda with one or more acids added. In single-acting baking powder, there is one acid that dissolved at room temperature when liquid is added and the reaction between acid and the baking soda begins immediately. In double-acting baking powder, there are two acids. One that dissolves and reacts immediately at room temperature, and one that dissolves at a higher temperature (in the oven) producing a second increment of CO2. You don't need to have any acidic ingredients when you use baking powder.

Baking soda requires an acid. That is usually found in an ingredient like vinegar, citrus juice, buttermilk, fruit puree, chocolate, molasses, or brown sugar. The reaction begins immediately when the ingredients are combined. When using baking soda or single-acting baking powder, it is important to get the product into the oven immediately do the leavening agent doesn't exhaust itself before the item is baked. Double-acting baking powder is more forgiving as the second acid doesn't start to dissolve and react until the product is in the oven.

The general rule is that you need 1/4 tsp. of baking soda per cup of flour or 1 tsp. of baking powder per cup of flour. So if you are going to make the substitution, you would exchange 1 tsp. of BP for each 1/2 tsp. of BS and visa versa. Sometimes you will see both BP and BS in recipes. The addition of the BS could be to neutralize an acid ingredient or to change the pH of the product to influence browning or texture.

I wrote: "you would exchange 1 tsp. of BP for each 1/2 tsp of BS."

I meant "you would exchange 1 tsp. of BP for each 1/4 tsp of BS"

Beth...you need to find a new hobby......baking is not your forte.

Hey now! I have many great hobbies but I like to get new ones! Isn't it a good trait that I want to learn how to do it without a box mix?!?! :)

I would defy you to be able to tell the difference between a "scratch" cake and a Duncan Hines Deluxe mix. You would choose the Duncan Hines mix.

Vinegar is acid. Lemon or lime juice would be an acceptable substitute in a pinch. A small bottle of vinegar would be essential in any kitchen from making a quick vinaigrette to cleaning a crystal vase.

Whoa dude! Aren't we a bit testy?? She asked a legitimate question & you have to be an asshole??

WTF?? It's people like you that keep people like her away from newsgroups like this.

My parents were very fond of a saying: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Shame on you...

We used to do cakes in my restaurants, for banquet customers. We discovered early on that if you asked people what they wanted, it was almost always a cake from scratch. But if you let them taste side by side, they almost always chose the box mix. They're more intensely flavored, sweeter, and more moist because of all the extra chemicals and humectants they put into them. They have more - new word - "cakeness" to them. Same principle as, if two are good, four are better.

Exactly.

Pastorio

Have you said something nice...?

Pastorio

But what about people ;like myself, who prefer to make it from scratch largely so they are NOT eating all the chemical, preservative, unpronouncable powdered junk. I cook becasue I want to know - and be able to pronounce - every single ingredient that goes into what I eat. Andthat don't happen with a box mix.

Truth if brutal.....but there is something about that heat in the kitchen

. I'll have you

So, will you post the recipe for the rest of us who would rathewr bake scratch cupcakes than boxed mixes, please?

"Ward Abbott" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Chill out!! I think I can tell that if I get a box mix and make it it's not scratch. However, if I mix some flour and sugar and whatever else is required, then I'm pretty sure that's from scratch. I know what vinegar is you moron. I just didn't know the point of it in a baking recipe. So what...I've never had the need or desire to learn to bake from scratch before now. Now that I picked up the habit of getting from scratch recipes only a couple months ago I can't bake because I don't know how vinegar reacts with baking soda?!?!? That's insane. I'm a single 25 year old living in a metropolitan area where I can order pretty much anything I want until 3 am. I didn't need to know how to make anything that didn't involve a box! But now that I've decided I like to try new things I'm being chastised by some internet baking Nazi. I don't think so. I'll have you know that the cupcakes I made, which had nothing from a mix, turned out moist and delicious. I mixed up some flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar, eggs, cream cheese, oil, water, chocolate chips and vanilla to make some great chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese and chocolate chip filling and the filling didn't even come through the top! I think that's pretty good for a novice! And you're rude comments will not keep me out of the kitchen. Thanks to those who replied so quickly!! I look forward to more questions being answered by the kinder people here. As for the person who has nothing better to do than to be rude, well, let's just say I have no need for rude people and will now be adding that person to my blocked email list. Beth

Agreed. Reasonable position. To each his own...

Pastorio

I th That reminds me of an anecdote about a baker who hates industrial cakes as its loaded with chemical.s.. Some years back I came into conversation with a cake baker in his baker who incidentally during shop talk kept complaining that cakes made by specialist cake manufacturers are bad....as they are loaded with chemicals Out of curiosity... I ask him what are those chemicals in particular,,, present in those cakes that you don't like.......? He said acid sodium pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate monohydrate and sodium bicarbonate....I told them you are also using them in your cakes.... He was surprised.....and challenged me..to prove that he is doing so... I grabbed a pail of his double acting baking powder...present in his ingredient shelf... I asked him, is this your favorite baking powder..? The baker answered.proudly ...Yes I have been using that brand for more than 10 years!

I said...Would you please Read aloud the ingredient composition...? As he read the ingredients his face became red in shame that he was barely unable to finish reading the ingredients which was identical to the ingredients I mentioned above..

In the same line you may be intimidated by the ingredients list...but all of those ingredients are added for functional reason.. .I know as I worked in that line for many years...in the food research lab developing related prepared mixes.. for home and institutional users...

The reason that people are intimidated by it is they don't understand what is for.... You may see in the cake mix box these things,,,

Leavening sodium aluminum phosphate, dicalcium phosphate dehydrate along with the ingredients I mentioned above....but that is synonymous with high performance tailored double acting baking powder..!..

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil,,,,but that is the common shortening.! You may see bleached and enriched flour ( thiamine mononitrate, niacin,....etc...but those are present in the enriched flour you buy in the supermarket for home baking!

Emulsifiers but that is perfectly safe ingredient and so far in many animal feeding studies it was perfectly safe....another mono and diglycerides of fatty acids...but .that is present in your common vegetable shortening such as Crisco... These other things that is uncommon are the propylene glycol mono and diester of fatty acids, polyglycerol esters ,polysorbate 60,,,those emulsifiers are not common as they are not available over the counter...but is used in other foodstuff such as whipped toppings, mousses...even ins some ice cream etc.... Lecithin....that is present in egg yolk and soybeans

Stabilizers Cellulose gum which is sodium carboxymethylcellulose but that is used in making certain moldable fondant icing.... and commonly added as stabilizer in many beverages.. Guar gum...is a natural gum along with Xanthan gum...which can be found in ketchup and condiments and sauces as stabilizer.. Modified starch-corn starch....this ingredients is ubiquitous in many bottled sauces, pudding mixes, etc...

There might be some exceptions on ingredients lists which are difficult to remove the sinister reputations such as what is present in the commonly used colorant in cake mixes... Colors, such as tartrazine, sunset yellow etc.. these things are recently causing concern ...due to perceived cumulative effect,and also t that some of these coal tar dyes can promote allergy and hyperactivity....in certain individuals.. But that is changing due also to continuously evolving food laws...many food mixes formulators are going natural by using naturally derived colors instead such as combining bixin (from annatto), ,and curcumin( from turmeric) to replace tartazine and sunset yellow.

But preservatives...AFAIK... cake mix formulators and manufacturers don't add preservatives as the cakes made from the boxed mixes are expected to be consumed soon as its baked....

Finally the most interesting part of cake mixes is the superior moistness and tenderness is the result of the functional synergism of the ingredients, the emulsifier and stabilizers I mentioned...which are difficult to duplicate with ingredients you can find your cupboard or in the supermarket shelves for baking ingredients .

Therefore not being able to pronounce those ingredients does not mean that they are all notorious and have no reason for being there....but bear in mind....a cake formulation can be interpreted from different perspective .... From the standpoint of a home cook and ordinary baker is just flour, sugar ,eggs, water, baking powder and flavor.... But from the formulator in the food science lab....flour can be dissected into its basic components and how its processed such as bleached , enriched, to a pH and protein of a certain value... Sugar is granulated to a certain particle size.. Other ingredients can follow suit with precise specifications...required. . It is sheer ignorance in the point of a consumer who can't comprehend those special components . why its there.... and ego or course....as the reason for their hatred for cake mixes...

They believed that they can make better cakes than the box mixes...with just simple ingredients when that far from the truth.. Comparison wise...I still have to see a homebaker who can duplicate the baking performance and quality of cake mixes... with scratch recipes.... Some of their complaints are reasonable such as They say that some cake mixes are weak...and easy to crumble ....but that can be modified by altering your cake making methods...and the modification of the make up ingredients.