On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 08:56:47 -0700
Mike Avery > wrote:

> While baking soda and acid mixes will lose their "oomph" when stored,
> double acting baking powder typically will not, as it is activated by
> heat.


Partially.

Baking powder *is a baking soda and acid mix, of a sort. 'double acting'
means that some of the acid doesn't start to react until heated.

<soapbox>

Frequently this acid is aluminum sulfate. Hypochondriacs and
amateur hippies will tell you that aluminum is bad for you and that it will
give you all manner of health problems including alzheimer's.

These people are staggeringly stupid and completely ignorant of the fact
that aluminum is the 2nd most common solid on earth, and there is
absolutely no way to cut it out of your diet short of extremely stringent
laboratory conditions which are very difficult and expensive to achieve.
Because aluminum is in every plant on earth, and in anything that eats
plants, or anything that eats things that eat plants. It is also a critical
trace nutrient, just like fluoride.

Links between aluminum and various diseases are often sited, and people
often say, "Well, my gran died, and they did this test, and said there was
aluminum in her brain, so that's why she had alzheimer's." - Which is
bollox, because the procedure to test for aluminum is both expensive and
prone to false positives. Anybody conducting a scientific study would have
to do it three times to be sure, and since it's expensive, and they are not
conducting a scientific study, they don't.

You won't get alzheimer's from aluminum cookware or bakeware either, but
you might get funny tasting tomato sauce.

Sulfates, on the other hand, are extremely bitter and i prefer to avoid
them in lightly flavored items such as scones, biscuits, pancakes, waffles,
and some cakes. For better flavor, avoid aluminum sulfate baking powder.
Aluminum phosphate will have similar fridge performance. Calcium phosphate
won't.

</soapbox>