1 post tagged “ph”

An old trick when boiling vegetables is to add a little bit of baking soda to the water. This is supposed to help retain the color in the vegetables better. Now, that should be put to the test. A couple of weeks ago me and a chemist friend did a little testing. We cooked five pieces of broccoli in one liter of tap water, adding a teaspoon of E 500, (B)aking soda, E 335 and E 334 to four different samples. The last was (N)eutral.


Now, E 500, or sodium bicarbonate as it's most often referred to gave the best result. Baking soda did not do to bad colorwise but left a soapy touch on the broccoli. E 334, aka Tartaric acid gave more loss of color, only topped by E 335 sodium tartrate that really messed up the poor broccoli. So to no-ones surprise, the more acidic the worse for the vegetables. Use a bit of sodium bicarbonate in the water (10 ppt) to retain color in the boiled veggies