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Kitchenary
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Acid
Acid
- Substances with a pH lower than 7. For cooking, acids are used for flavor, to prevent browning on certain foods (apples, avocados), leavening, to counteract fishiness or other tastes in dishes, marinating, tenderizing, pickling, denaturing (ceviche), and other uses.
When replacing ingredients, make sure to consider the purpose of the replaced ingredient (for example, you usually cannot replace buttermilk with plain ol' milk in a biscuit recipe because there isn't an acidity component which creates puffiness (leavening)). It isn't always just for flavor. Some common replacements are:
1) For each cup of buttermilk: 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a liquid
measuring cup with plain milk to complete one cup of liquid. (1:1 ratio)
2) For each teaspoon of cream of tartar, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or
vinegar (1:2 ratio).
Additionally, acid can be a great addition to a dish - does the dish feel a little bland? Skip adding more salt and try a squeeze of lemon/lime juice or a dash of vinegar. A trick I learned from Blue Apron - if you feel like your dish is missing something but you cannot place what it is, acid just might work.
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Baking, Chemistry, Flavor, Ingredient
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Alkaline
Any ingredient or substance with a pH greater than 7. These ingredients are basic rather than acidic. Alkaline ingredients can speed up browning (Maillard) reactions, leaven baked goods, change the texture of foods, and soften skins of legumes and beans during cooking. If too much is used, then a soapy or bitter note may be present.
Melt-In-Your-Mouth Sugar Cookies
So excited to bring these cookies out into the wild...they are just so good in their soft and buttery deliciousness. A quick, no-fuss recipe that is sure to be a hit.