Anna Tyshinsky

How is it not rising all the time whenever it gets hot?

What a good question.

How much flour would we have to dump into the Atlantic?

A lot.

And the other good thing about bicarbonate, which is in the ocean, is if it gets near any calcium, then it can turn into calcium carbonate, which is shells of clams and mussels and crabs and stuff like that.

that can get locked up inside the animals, which is a really good way of sequestering chemicals.

Bicarb is cool stuff.

Everyone's got it, but I didn't know anything about it.

I've got some in my cupboard that when I first got married and started making cakes for my wife, I bought and have not opened it since.

And what I learned is it goes off, right?

I thought it probably didn't, but I think it stops working as well because oxygen gets in and it denatures it.

Yeah, you've got bicarb in your stomach all the time, whether you've eaten some or not, because the mucus lining of your stomach has got bicarbonate in it, and that's what stops the acid from eating away at your stomach lining.

Brilliant.

True baking powder.

There was another thing called pearl ash, which was a kind of baking soda.

But true baking powder was invented by someone we've come across before, a man called Alfred Bird.

And Alfred Bird created Bird's custard powder.

Yes.

Because his wife was allergic to eggs.

So he thought, well, I'm going to make this powder that will make you custard, but you don't need the eggs in it.