11 Baking Soda Uses in Cooking for Every Meal

Is it safe to use baking soda in food?

Baking soda is not just a leavening agent for your baked goods! Baking soda is safe to use in food and can be used for cooking in more ways than you think. Baking soda can be used to crisp the skin of food like chicken and potatoes and can also be used to cut acidity in dishes or drinks, for example.

ARM & HAMMER Baking Soda™ is a kitchen staple with many uses, but here are our favorite 10!

1. Fluffier Eggs

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and eggs are the perfect dish to start the morning off on the right foot. Full of protein and healthy fats, an egg scramble fills your belly and supplies plenty of energy for the day ahead. If your eggs are lacking luster, you might want to add some baking soda for a beautiful soft and fluffy egg.

How to Make Baking Soda Fluffy Eggs

1. Crack 3 eggs into a bowl and whisk together
2. Add a splash of milk and ½ tsp of baking soda to eggs and whisk in
3. Cook in pan to desired consistency

2. Cut Tomato Sauce Acidity

Tomatoes are a staple in many dishes due to their versatility and distinct flavor. However, if you ever feel like the tang of your tomato sauce is overpowering, you can use baking soda to cut the acidity. Baking soda has a pH level above 7 and can be used to counteract acids like tomatoes that have a pH level around 4.5. Adding baking soda will make your spaghetti sauce or tomato soup smoother and more flavorful, without the edge that acidity can leave.

How to Cut Acidity with Baking Soda

1. Add a pinch of baking soda to your tomato soup, paste, sauce, etc. while cooking to cut acidity
2. Add more baking soda to taste. Remember baking soda is a salt (sodium bicarbonate) so you might consider reducing other added salt in your recipe.

3. Clear up Cloudy Iced Tea with Baking Soda

A good iced tea is clear and refreshing any day of the week – but why does your iced tea sometimes go cloudy? Cloudiness in iced tea occurs when the tannins in the tea and the caffeine have bonded together. And while cloudy iced tea is safe to drink, it may not taste as good or look as appetizing. To prevent cloudiness from appearing in your next batch of tea, add in some baking soda! By adding baking soda to your water before steeping your tea, you create an alkaline water which makes tea smoother and taste less bitter.

Adding Baking Soda to Iced Tea

1. Add ¼ tsp of baking soda to every 8 cups of boiling water
2. Steep tea in the baking soda and water mixture
3. Refrigerate overnight

4. Easy-Peel Boiled Eggs

Boiled eggs aren’t just for breakfast – they also make a great snack! Boiled eggs are easy to transport since their shells are a barrier to the elements, but the tricky part is getting the shells off once you’re at your destination! Luckily there’s a hack for that: adding baking soda to your water before boiling your eggs can make it easier to peel the shells off.

Boiling Eggs with Baking Soda

1. Add your eggs to the bottom of your pot and fill with water, covering 1 inch above your eggs
2. Add a pinch of salt and ½ tsp of baking soda to the water
3. Boil to your usual preferred yolk consistency
4. Let eggs sit in a bowl of ice water until cooled
5. Peel whenever and wherever you want with ease

Baking soda in the water permeates the shell while boiling and slightly raises the egg’s pH level. This allows the cooked egg to separate from the shell easier!

5. Juicy Taco Meat

Have you ever been cooking ground beef for taco night and ended up with dry meat after losing too much water during the cook down? This common conundrum has an easy one-step fix that you’ll never skip again. Adding baking soda to ground beef helps it retain water and aids in a quicker brown. For more quick meat hacks with baking soda, check out our meat tenderizer article!

Baking Soda in Ground Beef

1. Lay out the ground beef on a sheet and sprinkle on 1/2 tsp of baking soda to every pound of meat
2. Toss the meat and baking soda, and then let sit for 15 minutes
3. Season and cook as preferred

In case you’re wondering, yes, you can add baking soda to ground beef or turkey you’re using for chili, meatballs or hamburgers to enjoy juicier and more flavorful meat.

6. Baking Soda in Coffee

A cup of joe can be good for the soul, but not always so easy on the stomach. Coffee is acidic in nature and drinking it often can upset your stomach and cause extra acid production or GERD. One way you can help avoid stomach pain and still have your favorite brew is by adding – you guessed it – baking soda. Baking soda can also make the flavor of your coffee smoother and less bitter.

Adding Baking Soda to Coffee

If making a pot of coffee:

1. Add ½ tsp of baking soda to your coffee carafe before brewing

If using a single serve machine:

2. Add a pinch of baking soda to your cup and mix before drinking

7. Quick Browning Onions

Beautiful, brown, caramelized onions are delicious, but can take up to 45 minutes to cook to the right consistency. And while hard work makes everything taste sweeter, sometimes we’re pressed for time. Luckily there’s a hack that cuts the caramelization cook time down to 1/3 the original time – adding baking soda.

Caramelized Onions with Baking Soda

1. Add chopped onions to pan with butter and a pinch of baking soda
2. Cook on medium heat
3. Stir consistently as butter melts, and then stir on and off as the onions caramelize

8. Crunchy Chicken Wings or Drumsticks

Few food experiences compare to the satisfying crunch of the first bite of a chicken wing. When making chicken wings at home, it can be hard to find the right recipe to recreate the crunch from your favorite chicken shop. If you find your wings are lacking crispness, try adding baking soda to the coating of your chicken! Just like our caramelized onions and juicy beef, baking soda helps brown and crisp the skin of the chicken while keeping the meat from drying out.

Baking Soda Chicken Wings

1. Add 1/4 tsp of baking soda to your seasoned flour mix
2. Toss wings in mixture and place on baking sheet
3. Follow your preferred recipe’s cooking instructions as usual

9. Immediately Dispose of Used Cooking Oil with Baking Soda

Sauteing ground beef, pan frying a tender steak or cooking bacon can be quite a greasy process. But you don’t want to pour the grease down the drain, because it can cause troublesome clogging. You can use baking soda to clean up cooking oil quickly and wash your pan right away – without waiting for the oil to congeal. Adding baking soda to your greasy pan will form a clumpy paste that you can roll into parchment paper and dispose of accordingly. Cleaning up after a deep fry is much less daunting thanks to this neat tip!

Adding Baking Soda to Greasy Pans after Cooking

1. Sprinkle baking soda in your greasy pan.
2. Use a spoon or spatula to mix the baking soda into the leftover cooking oil. They should clump together to form a thicker paste. Add more if necessary.
3. To dispose of the oil immediately, roll it onto a sheet of baking paper or paper towel then put in the trash.

10. Creamy Hummus

No one has ever dipped into a hummus and wished it was chunky. Making a creamy hummus seems easy in theory but homemade hummus can often come up short. The trick to having a smooth hummus is none other than a baking soda bath. The shell around your chickpeas is what creates unwanted texture in your hummus. By soaking the chickpeas in a baking soda water bath before cooking, the shell becomes more soluble, thanks to the now balanced pH of the water.

Hummus Baking Soda Bath

1. Add 1 tsp of baking soda for every 1 cup of dried garbanzo beans in a bowl and cover completely with water by 2 inches
2. Allow beans to soak overnight and drain
3. Follow your favorite hummus recipe for cooking instructions and seasoning

And yes, this method also works well for cooking any dried beans. Add baking soda to your bean soak whether you’re making a navy bean soup, Cuban black beans, southern style pintos or homemade baked beans.

11. Crispy Potato Jackets

Potatoes are a bit like baking soda – there’s 100 ways to use them! One of our favorite ways to use baking soda in cooking is a baked potato (also called a jacket potato). And of course, we have a hack for making the best potato on the block: boil your potato with baking soda to draw the starches to the surface before baking. The extra starch makes the skin brown and crispy while keeping the inner potato soft. It’s a little extra work that has a big payoff.

Crispy Potatoes with Baking Soda

1. Add potatoes to a pot and partially cover with water
2. Add ½ tsp of baking soda and bring to a boil
3. Remove potatoes from the pot and transfer to a baking sheet
4. Follow your favorite recipe as usual, keeping an eye on the potato skins to prevent blackening

Do More with Baking Soda

• Baking Powder versus Baking Soda
• Share-worthy Desserts You’ll Crave
• How to Clean Fruits and Vegetables with Baking Soda