Can I substitute baking soda for kansui powder?

Question

Related: What does kansui do to dough in noodle making?

I'm looking to make my own 拉面-style noodles. I've read up a lot about kansui and making your own kansui with a powder mix of sodium and potassium carbonates. I've also seen some recipes that substitute kansui powder with baking soda.

Can I use baking soda to substitute for kansui? If so, in what proportions? If not, what other common ingredients can I use to substitute?

Brendan · Accepted Answer

Harold McGee tackled alkaline noodles a while back. He found that baking baking soda actually changes it from sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. This is a reasonable substitute for the kansui called for in alkaline noodles and can be substituted 1:1 in recipes. The noodles may not get AS yellow as they would with both alkalines present in kansui but it's a small price to pay for not having to hunt down that ingredient.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/dining/15curious.html?_r=0

The key part:

Just spread a layer of soda on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake it at 250 to 300 degrees for an hour. You’ll lose about a third of the soda’s weight in water and carbon dioxide, but you gain a stronger alkali. Keep baked soda in a tightly sealed jar to prevent it from absorbing moisture from the air. And avoid touching or spilling it. It’s not lye, but it’s strong enough to irritate.

ehmhunt · Answer

I'm not sure about the exact proportions, but nearly every recipe I've seen written in English just uses baking soda. This page seems to have a good looking recipe for ramen that uses baking soda, so maybe base your proportions off of it. 拉面 recipe

Answered by ehmhunt on December 31, 2020

Paul · Answer

I "baked" baking soda for about one hour, low oven. It changes its chemical structure to sodium carbonate which is simply more alkali.

Suggestion, kansui makes fabulous spaghetti and noodles (even some Italians add baking soda to their pasta mixture). I use 1/4 teaspoon per cup of regular all purpose flour, or 1 teaspoon per three cups, and the results are outstanding.

MapRef41N93Wx · Answer

No. Sodium bicarbonate isn't alkaline enough. You won't have traditional ramen unless you were to use sodium carbonate. You will end up with a noodle with less bite if you were to use baking soda.

Just bake the sodium bicarbonate at 400-425F (not in a low oven like another poster is claiming) for 30 mins to an hour till its all become grainy rather than fluffy. Stir this into the water you will use for the noodles and you will have a mock kansui.

Nick Holland · Answer

I too have tried several "recipes" all different.
But I have found adding Bicarbonate of Soda to pasts and ramen does firm the bite up noticeably.

Can I substitute baking soda for kansui powder?

5 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question