Kitchen chaos

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Baking powder

Baking powder is commonly used in cooking. Muffins, cakes, biscuits and scones all use baking powder to help them to rise. The bubbles produced from baking-powder are carbon dioxide.

Baking-powder is made up of three different parts, in powder form; an acid, an alkali and some sort of filler. Most commonly the elements in baking-powder are baking soda (an alkali), cream of tartar (an acid) and corn starch (a filler). Add water, and voila! A chemical reaction! Why don’t you find out the pH of baking-powder, using a red cabbage pH indicator.

Vinegar

Did you know that vinegar is an all-purpose solution to cleaning and deodorising around your home? It’s also very environmentally friendly.

Vinegar was discovered quite by chance over 10,000 years ago, it’s quite literally ‘sour wine’ (vinaigre in French). It’s made by two processes, the first is fermentation (which uses yeasts to turn sugar into alcohol) and the second is acetic (or acid) fermentation which uses bacteria to convert the alcohol into acid. Why don’t you test some vinegar at home using a red cabbage pH indicator?

Bleach

Most bleaches use sodium hypochlorite. It’s important when using bleach around the home not to mix it with other household chemicals, especially those containing ammonia. This is because deadly chlorine gas can form.

Bleach is a great disinfectant, as it’s able to kill bacteria and algae. Our drinking water is treated with chlorine to eliminate water-borne bacteria. Millions of people have died from water-borne diseases, and the use of chlorine in modern water treatment plants have avoided this. Why don’t you test some bleach at home using a red cabbage pH indicator?