12 Unexpected Uses For Baking Soda

Ah, baking soda. Chances are, you have a box tucked away in your pantry, ready to be used in your favorite recipes. True to its name, one of baking soda's most well-known functions is, well, baking. This humble kitchen staple, though, is far more versatile than you might think.

So, what exactly is baking soda, and how does it work? Simply put, baking soda is an alkaline (non-acidic) chemical compound. When it interacts with an acid — such as vinegar, lemon juice, or buttermilk — a chemical reaction takes place and carbon dioxide is produced. This reaction is what makes baking soda a key ingredient in baking, helping doughs and batters rise to perfection.

But baking soda's usefulness goes well beyond the oven. Thanks to its unique chemical properties, it can tackle everything from cleaning and cooking to enhancing everyday ingredients. A magic ingredient hiding in a simple box — baking soda is an unexpected hack in your kitchen.

The CDC recommends giving all of your produce a thorough rinse and scrub before consumption, and sometimes a quick rinse under running water doesn't feel like enough. Baking soda is the ideal product to get your produce squeaky clean and sanitized.

Baking soda is mildly abrasive, which helps it work well for gentle cleanings. There is also evidence that baking soda can remove pesticides from vegetables better than simply rinsing in water would. One study showed that produce washed with baking soda reduced pesticide residue by 66.7-98.9%, compared to a reduction of 26.7-62.9% from washing in tap water alone.

To try this produce cleaning method, create a solution with one teaspoon baking soda per two cups of water. Then, swish your produce in this mixture and allow it to soak for 12-15 minutes before rinsing in cold water. Make sure to set a timer and not let the produce soak for too long though. Because baking soda is an alkaline substance, it can break down some fruits and vegetables if left for too long.

Despite our best intentions, refrigerators always seem to be a sea of smells. Whether it's from an unnoticed spill, forgotten produce hiding in the back, or particularly pungent foods, odors can feel inevitable.

Luckily, baking soda can come to your rescue! It turns out most fridge odors are caused by fatty acids emitted by some foods when they decay or other acidic volatile compounds created by bacteria or mildew. Because baking soda is a basic substance, it can neutralize these acidic compounds and absorb their odors once they make contact with its surface area.

The best part about using this baking soda fridge hack is that it's pretty easy! Simply pour a cup of baking soda into a shallow container (or just fully open the original box the baking soda came in) and place it inside the fridge. Replace this container every 3 months or whenever you notice odors returning.

You're preparing for a special occasion dinner party and want to use your best, real silverware. Unfortunately, when you take it out of the drawer and unwrap it, it's covered in black tarnish. Tarnishing is common and natural, occurring when silver is exposed to sulfur compounds or moisture found in the air or even acidic chemicals found in the tissue paper it can sometimes be stored in. But is there a quick fix?

One very effective way to remove tarnish is with (you guessed it) baking soda and aluminum foil. To try this method, line a bowl with a layer of aluminum foil and sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda on top. Lay the tarnished silverware on top of the baking soda and cover it completely with hot water. Then, let the mixture sit for a few minutes and rinse with cold water. The silverware should now be tarnish-free. This method works via a redox reaction and transfers the tarnish from the silver to the aluminum foil.

If you're looking for an even simpler fix, you can also just use baking soda and lemon juice. Simply combine these two ingredients into a paste, spread over the silver, allow to sit for a few minutes, polish the silver with this mixture using a soft rag, and rinse it with dish soap and water. This method works by utilizing baking soda's abrasive qualities and relying on the vinegar acid to target the tarnish. Just be sure to polish vigorously for the best results.

Crispy chicken skin can take a dish from good to great, adding a unique textural element that enhances the already delicious flavors. But when it's not cooked properly, you're left with chewy or soggy skin, which can be a big letdown. Fortunately, adding baking soda is a simple, unexpected trick to achieving perfectly crispy, golden-brown chicken wings or thighs for your next meal.

Baking soda crisps chicken skin in two ways: by accelerating browning and improving texture. First, the baking soda raises the pH of the chicken skin, causing peptide bonds to break down and leading the skin to brown faster. Second, when the baking soda is exposed to moisture on the chicken skin, it reacts and creates tiny carbon dioxide bubbles. When the chicken is cooked, the bubbles expand and the result is a crispy texture.

To try this technique and achieve the perfect crispy chicken skin, first pat down your chicken to remove all moisture. Next, combine one teaspoon baking soda per pound of chicken with whatever seasoning you'd like. Toss the chicken in this mixture and then allow it to sit on a wire rack in the fridge for at least a few hours to allow time for the peptide bonds to break down. When you're ready, cook the chicken as usual and enjoy irresistibly crispy skin.

We have all tasted a tomato sauce that was just a bit too sour. Tomatoes are a naturally acidic food, but in the perfect tomato sauce this acidity is balanced. Baking soda offers a solution to this problem. Its alkaline quality works to raise the pH, neutralize the acidity in the sauce, and really helps the natural sweetness of the tomatoes shine.

Simply add a tiny bit of baking soda to your sauce near the end of the cooking process and witness as the acidity slips away. Because baking soda works magic, it is really easy to get carried away. Exercise restraint and only add the tiniest pinch — about ¼ teaspoon per one cup of sauce. You can't take it back once you add it, and too much can quickly make your sauce taste bitter.

A perfectly cooked steak is tender and juicy, but achieving that ideal texture can take some finesse. While there are many methods for tenderizing meat, baking soda may be one of the easiest and most effective. Baking soda works to tenderize meat by breaking down peptide bonds that prevent the muscle fibers from seizing up when cooked. The resulting looser fibers result in a tenderer and more juicy bite. Known as velveting, this baking soda technique is popular in Chinese cuisine. When preparing chicken or beef for cooking, "velveting" is done by soaking the meat in a baking soda slurry 15 minutes up to 12 hours. The result is a very tender, almost silky texture that is perfect for stir-fries.

To use baking soda in your everyday meat preparation, simply stir together ½ a cup of water and 1 teaspoon of baking soda (per 12 ounces of meat) in a bowl until combined. Add your meat to this bowl and allow to sit for about 15 minutes. Rinse the meat in water to remove the mixture, pat it dry, and then prepare the cut however you normally would for cooking. After cooking, you should be left with a beautifully tender cut. Baking soda doesn't tenderize very deep, so this technique is best used on thinner cuts of meat with a larger surface area — not thicker or tougher cuts that tend to require a longer and slower cooking time.

Hard-boiled eggs are meant to be a quick, easy, and nutritious meal, but peeling them can be frustrating. More often than not, chunks of egg white stick to the shell, leaving you with a mangled mess. Baking soda offers an unexpected solution and can make cooked eggs easier to peel.

This trick couldn't be easier: Simply add a teaspoon of baking soda into the boiling water with your eggs and wait for the magic to happen. Adding baking soda will raise the pH of both the water and egg whites. A higher pH allows the whites of the eggs to separate easier from their inner shell membranes, thus making them easier to peel. Older eggs naturally have higher pH than younger eggs, which is why they are generally easier to peel anyway. Baking soda simply compensates and assists in this natural process. The baking soda also shouldn't alter the taste of the cooked egg at all once peeled.

Coffee is a morning essential, but also admittedly an acquired taste. Acidic and bitter, it can be very tempting to load it full of cream and sugar to temper the harsh flavors. Unexpectedly, adding just a dash of baking soda can have the same effect. Coffee has a pH between 4 and 5, making it a relatively acidic compound. When baking soda is added, this acidity becomes more neutralized. Not only does this create a smoother taste, but it can also assist with digesting the beverage. Acidic beverages can be hard on the stomach, and adding baking soda has the potential to act as a natural antacid.

To try this trick out, simply add ¼ teaspoon of baking soda to your unbrewed coffee grounds. Then, just brew your coffee as normal. The result should be a slightly smoother and less bitter beverage. This baking soda hack is best used on cheaper or lower-quality beans, which tend to have more innate acidity.

Cutting boards go through a lot. Truly the everyday kitchen tool, they have the potential to encounter almost every ingredient we work with and can absorb some of those many odors. Baking soda is an ideal cutting board cleaner because it itself is odorless. Unlike other techniques that clean and mask the unpleasant scents with something else, baking soda offers an essentially neutral solution.

Baking soda works to clean your cutting board in many ways. Similar to the work it does in the fridge, it is able to neutralize many unpleasant odors caused by fatty acids. Baking soda is also mildly alkali, which allows it to break down greasy compounds and residue that might be left on the board. Lastly, its abrasive texture also makes it ideal for scrubbing.

To use baking soda to clean your cutting board, start by creating a paste of one-part water to three-part baking soda. Then, spread this mixture on your cutting board and scrub away! Rinse the cutting board with cold water, and it should be left squeaky clean and smell a lot better.

We all strive to eat more vegetables, and boiling is one of the quickest and easiest ways to prepare them. Unfortunately, if not done exactly right, boiling can diminish some of vegetable's colorful and delicious qualities. Overcooked vegetables can turn previously vibrant vegetables into a mushy, brownish, and unappetizing meal.

Baking soda can provide an unexpected hack to keep vegetables colorful when boiled. Adding baking soda to water turns it alkaline. The component in vegetables that maintain their structure and color is chlorophyll, which supports the cell walls. In an acidic environment, the chlorophyll will break down quickly, resulting in a mushy vegetable. By making the water more alkaline, baking soda can slow this process down and keep the vegetables greener.

To use this hack, add a small pinch — about ⅛ teaspoon — of baking soda into a big pot of boiling water. Then, just cook your vegetables as you would normally. Like with tomato sauce, it is crucial to only add a tiny pinch of baking soda or else your vegetables may adopt a bitter taste.

Beans are delicious, nutritious, affordable, and incredibly versatile. A key ingredient in so many delicious dips, salads, and soups, they truly are a superfood. Unfortunately, cooking them from their dry form can be an incredibly time-consuming process. Baking soda offers a hack to get them to their edible, soft form much quicker. In a similar process to how it tenderizes meat, baking soda works to speed up the cooking process because its alkaline properties break down the bean peptides and membranes.

Baking soda can be added at various stages of the bean soaking process, either while they pre-soak in water or later as they cook on the stove. In either case, only add a tiny pinch of baking soda (around ⅛ teaspoon or less). If too much is added, the beans can end up tasting bitter and soapy. For baking soda, a little goes a long way.

We all have pots that seem like they're past the point of no return. Someway or another, they became scorched and, over time, have developed a grime that seems impossible to get off. Before you give up hope, though, give baking soda a shot. Baking soda offers an unexpected solution to clean all pans, from non-stick to stainless steel to cast iron.

Once again, baking soda utilizes its abrasive and alkaline qualities to scrub and break down various sticky compounds typically created by fatty and acidic foods. To clean most stainless steel pots and pans, begin by making a thin paste of baking soda and water. Bring this very thin, watery paste to a boil, and then allow the pan to sit for several hours. After letting it sit, scrub the pan to get any loose residue off and then rinse. You should be left with a clean and sparkling pan. Before using this technique on other materials, consult the manual that comes with your pot to ensure proper treatment.