It’s B.S.! And I’m not referring to Bull “Pucky” (wink, wink…I’d never say shit.). Rather, I’d like to talk about Baking Soda.
Case in point: Late the other evening Wynnsome, our Corgi, went tearing out of the house, barking more than usual. And she returned smelling worse than usual. Yes, she had a little confrontation with a skunk.
While Andy held her to keep her from returning to finish off her skunk confrontation, I frantically searched the web for what to use on her to get rid of the pungent smell. We had always heard tomato juice, but my search indicated that didn’t work well. Rather, the most recommended wash includes hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. According to The Humane Society, you should mix 4 cups hydrogen peroxide (3% solution), 1/4 c baking soda, and 1/4 c liquid dishwashing soap and bathe your pup. But be cautious. If you leave it on your doggie too long, it may bleach his or her fur.
If your clothes smell and the dog’s mat smells (as did ours) when it’s all over, simply add about 1/2 c of baking soda to the machine when you do the wash.
True confession: I couldn’t envision our cute little Cardigan Corgi with accidentally-bleached brindle fur, so I quickly decided to go another route, which seems to have worked well. I diluted 1 c of apple cider vinegar with 2 c of water and poured it over Wynn, being very careful not to get it in her eyes. Then I massaged it in a little.
A month or so ago I blogged about the many uses of thyme, and now I want to encourage your use of baking soda.
When we had a musty basement smell after all of the rain our area experienced last winter, I read that we should put open bowls of baking soda around the room. Voila! It helped the smell (well, it was baking soda in addition to pulling up the flooring, sealing the cracks, and some major input from a foundation expert).
We’ve tried a baking soda paste with good results on insect stings, on water stains on wood, on cold sores, to get stinky stuff off of our hands, and to deodorize smelly shoes. We put an open bowl of baking soda in the refrigerator if there’s a weird smell (in addition to finding the source of the weird smell). I recommend you go to Healthline.com or The Old Farmer’s Almanac if you want to know more about the multitudinous ways the you might make good use of this cheap and readily available product.
As for baking soda brands, Arm & Hammer, the U.S. brand we’re all so familiar with, has been around since 1846. It was largely marketed early on by mini cookbooks, such as the one pictured above.
There are also slightly more upscale brands.
What’s the process for making baking soda? Well, I found this helpful article in Treehugger.com, “Baking soda (NaHCO3) is a naturally occurring crystalline chemical compound that is often found in powder form. It is mined and then created through a chemical process. Initially it comes out of the ground in the form of minerals nahcolite and trona. Trona is refined into soda ash (aka sodium carbonate), then turned into baking soda (aka sodium bicarbonate), among other things.” The soda ash used to make baking soda can be produced with synthetic ingredients, but about 35% comes from natural sources.
It may comfort you to know (when you’re in the midst of baking – or cleaning up your skunk-smelly pup) that the Green River Basin of Southwestern Wyoming has the largest trona deposit in the world and there is no risk of it being depleted anytime soon (unless soon means sooner than the next 2000 years). And it’s also comforting to know that Treehugger.com states that while the mining process isn’t ideal, there are “countless other, much worse, lab-contrived substances in our daily lives.”
Should you ever find yourself needing fresh baking powder – and you only have baking soda – you can make a substitute using 1 part baking soda to 2 parts cream of tartar (like 1 T baking soda and 2 T cream of tartar).
One final word to the wise: don’t stir vinegar and baking soda together thinking you’ll get something REALLY clean with that combo. Yes, they’re both good cleaning agents, but they essentially cancel each other out when combined. However, if you’re cleaning drains, feel free to dump about a cup of baking soda down the drain. Follow that up with about a cup of white vinegar. Let it foam for a little while, then rinse it all down with hot water.
Irish Soda Bread
- 4 c flour, plus extra for currants
- 4 T sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp Diamond kosher salt
- 4 T (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
- 1 3/4 c cold buttermilk, shaken
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp grated orange zest (be sure to use it…the bread needs that little extra pizazz)
- 1 cup dried currants (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, a pastry cutter, a food processor – or even your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture until it’s evenly distributed and no large chunks remain.
With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg, and orange zest together in a measuring cup. Slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, mixing well – but being cautious not to overmix. Combine the currants with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix into the dough. The dough will be very wet.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife, making the cut about 1/2″ deep. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean and the bread is golden brown. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound.
Cool on a baking rack. Slice thinly. Serve warm or at room temperature.
An effective “cure” for nasty bites and bee-stings is meat tenderizer. Adolf’s works well. Don’t know why, exactly it works. But, I’d read a snippet in Gayle’s nursing journal and she received a very painful sting about 50 years ago. I stopped the car at a nearby grocery, bought the tenderizer and applied it. Voila!
Back in the days when we would vacation with the kids in Pensacola we learned that tenderizer also was good for jelly fish stings.
The soda bread is a treat as well… but it really should be a rare treat especially for those of us who are starting to get older.