Talk:Alkaline pasta/Draft

I neaded that!

Thanks! Give 'em try -- they're fantastic -- and can be rolled out unbelievably thin without breaking.... Hayford Peirce 22:33, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

Some suggestions

Hayford, here are my comments/revisions/etc.:

(1) Sodium carbonate really should be written as Na₂CO₃ rather than Na2CO3. This is trivial point, but is should be done.

(2) It would be much better to write "... baked in a 300 °F oven for an hour." instead of "... baked in a 300-degree oven for an hour.". The U.S. is one of the very few countries that still uses Fahrenheit temperatures. If you want readers in other countries to understand your recipe instructions, then it would be even better to write
"... baked in an oven at 300 °F (150 °C) for an hour."

(3) As noted in your reference 4, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃ ). When it is baked at your 300 °F (150°C), it forms sodium carbonate (a solid) and releases water vapor and carbon dioxide gas. Thus:

In plain text: sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) + heat → sodium carbonate + water vapor + carbon dioxide gas

As a chemical equation: NaHCO₃ +heat → Na₂CO₃ + H₂0 + CO₂

I think it might be nice if you could work one or both of the above equations into this article somewhere ... but it it isn't absolutely necessary. In fact, you might consider replacing McGee's quote in your reference 3 with the above explanation and equations. That would avoid talking about strong and weak alkalis, lye, hydroxyls, protons and molecules ... which may be Greek to many readers of your recipe.

(4) Now that you understand the chemistry (I hope), your sentence "A very small of amount of the baked soda is used ..." might be confusing. It would avoid any confusion if you revised it to read "A very small amount of the sodium carbonate, formed when the baking soda is baked, is used ..."

(5) For the same reason, your sentence "The unused portion of the baked soda can be stored in ..." would be less confusing if revised to read "The unused portion of the sodium carbonate, formed when the baking soda is baked, can be stored in ..."

(6) I would urge you to read this online pdf : The Future of Flour: Chapter23, Section 23.2. It would be another good reference for your article and it has everything you would ever want to know about Chinese and Asian noodles.

That's it. Milton Beychok 06:37, 3 October 2010 (UTC)