I tried making Malva pudding today using this recipe and the results were decidedly off. I don't know if it was too acidy or basey but definitely didn't taste right. The recipy calls for 2tsp bicarb and 1tbsp vinegar. I did think it was quite a bit of vinegar at the time but trusted the recipe. I assumed the bicarb/vinegar would neutralize eachother and act as a rising agent.
Is this a usual amount of bicarb/vinegar to use in a recipe of this size? Or did I do something else wrong?
Full disclosure: I didn't have jam so that was excluded but followed the recipe faithfully otherwise, fresh ingredients and all. Could the exclusion of the jam have made a diff? I didn't think it would?
Edit:
It could have been the jam! Apricot jam has a pH of 3.8ish which is what makes it preserve so well I believe. So it's possible that the jam was also supposed to neutralize the bicarb.
Edit 2:
I asked about the acid base ratio at chemistry here and almost certainly too much bicarb!
Best Answer
In any recipe where a chemical reaction is required, in this case the reaction of bicarbonate and vinegar as a raising agent, it is important to add all ingredients. In any chemical reaction the wrong ingredient or the lack of one can make all the difference. The vinegar may have reacted with most of the bicarbonate but the apricot jam would have been used as a sufficient means to add both flavour and stabilise the rest of the bicarbonate.