What is the composition of edible alkali?

Edible alkali is a mixture of soda ash (chemical formula Na2CO3) and baking soda (chemical formula NaHCO3), which is the finished product after absorbing carbon dioxide from soda ash solution or crystal.

Eating alkali is an inorganic substance with no nutrients, but its role in food cooking should not be underestimated. Alkali-eating aqueous solution is electrolyte, which can enhance the water absorption capacity of protein molecules in food raw materials (such as squid) and accelerate the growth of raw materials. However, we should pay attention to the dosage, method and time of alkali to prevent food raw materials from being too thorough, rotting or even deteriorating.

Extended data:

When wrapping zongzi, glutinous rice will be soaked in plant ash water after burning one plant, and the wrapped zongzi will be golden and not easy to deteriorate. When we arrived in Beijing, we didn't have the conditions to make this kind of plant ash water, so we used edible alkaline water to soak it. Baking soda is weak in alkalinity and can't meet the requirements of golden rice grains.

Don't put alkali or baking soda in porridge, in fact, it is rarely done at home now. CCTV once had a program devoted to this issue. Putting alkali in porridge will make porridge appear sticky, which has little effect on the nutrition of rice porridge, but is harmful to the nutritional components such as vitamin B 1B2 in miscellaneous cereal porridge and bean porridge. Therefore, it is not recommended to add alkali or baking soda to cook miscellaneous grains porridge.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-edible alkali