Food - Drink
How Julia Child Would Test Baking Powder Before Using
By JOHN TOLLEY
Chef and food media super-celebrity Julia Child was a library of tips and tricks gleaned from professional chefs and home cooks alike. She would dole out these tips to burgeoning cooks who were apprehensive about the nuances of the kitchen and even more-seasoned kitchen denizens looking to up their game.
She was also keen on cooks making sure that they were getting the most effective use out of their ingredients, and nowhere was that more apparent than in her advice for testing out baking powder. Though baking powder will never spoil it will lose its potency somewhere around the six-month mark.
Child offered a simple, but effective way for cooks to test their baking powder before using it in their batch of cookies or cake. Just get a half cup of hot water and stir in a teaspoon of baking powder. It should begin to bubble actively. If it doesn't, it's time to move on to a fresh container.