I try to not cook too early in the morning, especially when I have not had my cup of coffee. One recent weekend morning, I forgot that personal rule of thumb and set out to make a batch of yeasted bun (bao) dough for some steamed chicken bao that I'd planned to take to a luncheon. "How can I fail," I smugly said to myself. I use a scale to accurately weigh my flour. I've made this recipe a zillion times. It's fail-safe. They will be steamed and still warm when I arrive at the luncheon and present our hosts with homemade bao. Perfect timing. It seemed all perfectly downhill from there.
Well, not. What happened was this: I reached into my cupboard for the round container of baking powder and mistakenly picked up the baking soda, which came in a similarly-shaped container. For years I kept the soda in a glass container in another cupboard, but several months ago, I purchased some organic baking soda from Trader Joe's and the little cylindrical paper container was of the same size as your typical Clabber Girl/Calumet brand.
When the dough rising time was over, I noticed that it hadn't puffed up as much as usual. Oh, well -- I thought, it may be the air temperature or humidity level. Whatever. I formed my buns, let them rise and steamed them up.
Gadzooks! Ten minutes later, I checked on the steaming bao and they were a ghastly yellow-brown color, like a poorly prepared curry. The bao looked like baked glazed porcelain. I knew exactly what had happened: I had used baking soda instead of powder. Remember my post of how to make Chinese bao dough white?
"I bet they'll taste just great," my husband optimistically said. I was sure that the buns would not be right. We let the steamed bao cool and then ate one. It was hideously metallic tasting, and frankly, I could not swallow it. Yuck!
With a frown on my face, I ripped open the uncooked bao and scraped out the filling, refrigerating it for later use. "We have to be at Bill and Penny's house in 45 minutes. What are we going to bring?" Rory asked.
Uh, yeah. I ran into the garage and rummaged through my freezer. Lo-and-behold, a bag of frozen curried chicken bao, which thawed by the time time we arrived at the luncheon for me to re-steam them freshness. Praise the freezer! Our friends didn't care or know the difference as they snacked on all the bao and drank the prosecco cocktail my husband concocted.
The Asian dumpling lessons learned here were many:
(1) Keep the baking soda far away from the baking powder.
(2) Don't cook until you are lucid.
(3) Have a frozen dumpling back up. (And if you don't, bring an extra bottle of wine to the party.)
(4) It's okay to rip out the filling and start over.
The next day, I wanted to regain my game. I remade the dough with the correct ingredients. The filling was done so it wasn't a big deal. Just as with all the other times when I didn't make such a huge goof, my steamed bao were terrific, much fluffier and definitely tastier than the ones made with baking soda. The above photo of the two steamed bao makes the point. Whew!
Related links:
I remember reading your post about keeping bao white and I'm so sorry about the groggy mistake! It's happened to all of us. I once had to make four times the quantity of pancakes I intended because I forgot how much baking soda I'd added, and then I remembered, and it was too much.
Science-wise, the reason your bao turned brown and shiny was the alkalinity. Baking soda produces an alkaline solution in water and this alkalinity accelerates browning reactions (e.g., the Maillard reaction). This is the reason a baking soda/water wash is recommended for pretzels - to achieve that deep brown color. Actually, lye is traditional, but food grade lye is not readily available to home cooks and most people are squeamish about cooking with a product they associate with toilet bowl cleaner.
Posted by: Wendy Tien | 03/17/2010 at 03:03 PM
Wendy -- thanks for the terrific food science explanation. Indeed, it has to do with alkalinity. There is a Chinese leavening agent -- potassium bicarbonate -- which is also alkaline and has a similar impact on food. I use potassium bicarbonate solution when I prepare moon cakes. The solution has sometimes been called "lye water" but I believe that that's an incorrect name. Man, I've not made soft pretzels in well... too many years!
In these baos, it's a situation of baking soda gone wild! The metallic taste was just awful.
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | 03/17/2010 at 03:13 PM
Wow, that's dramatic.
At least there's a visual clue, unlike a sugar/salt mixup which is a shock when tasted (I've never done that, but I know those who have).
Posted by: twitter.com/bob_ferrapuhls | 03/17/2010 at 03:23 PM
Wow, that's a striking difference, all due to a little chemistry!
"Don't cook until you are lucid." hehe. Great advice! Thanks for sharing your mistake with us and educating us about what is the right ingredient.
Posted by: Nate @ House of Annie | 03/17/2010 at 05:43 PM
Andrea, I had to laugh when I read the "scraping out the filling". I would have done the same thing too. Thank you for sharing the story.
Posted by: Tuty @Scentofspice | 03/17/2010 at 06:35 PM
Bob -- I have mistakenly used salt instead of sugar. I admit it. I'm human.
I'm delighted to share my foibles. Better me than you, eh?
Posted by: Andrea Nguyen | 03/17/2010 at 09:54 PM
Very nice save with the filling :D I had to agree with your husband, it still does look good.
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