Open up the kitchen cupboards and you may well find a small pot of humble Sodium Bicarbonate (commonly known as baking soda). There are various uses of baking soda. It’s often left around the house in various locations with some family members wondering where it came from, who bought it and what it is used for. You may be surprised to learn that that humble, stout little container is home to one of the most amazing and versatile substances known to man.
Table of Contents
Uses of Baking Soda
Use 1: In Cooking
As the name suggests, it can be used in the culinary world and has many benefits there. Adding a pinch of baking soda to your morning omelet, for instance, can help to make the eggs fluffier and more enjoyable. You can also add them to cookie dough to leven them and stop them rising into cakes. It can even be added to syrup to stop it from crystallising.
Use 2: De-Scorching Cooking Pots
If you’ve recently had some accidents with your cooking pot and scorched the bottoms of them while getting ambitious in the kitchen, then baking soda will get them nice and clean. All you have to do is sprinkle baking soda onto the scorched areas, add water and bring it to the boil. It will lift away most of the burnt food particles, but any remainders can usually be removed easily with a scouring pad.
Use 3: Pesticide Remover
A lot of people now are concerned about whether or not their food might have been contaminated with pesticides or may have pesticide residue on them. The only recourse is to wash and peel them, which takes away a lot of nutrients, including fiber, vitamins and more. Washing your produce in a baking soda solution is a great way to remove pesticides and keep the skins on.
Use 4: Stain Remover
Another top use of baking soda is as a remover of stubborn stains, especially in rugs and carpets. Baking soda joins forces with white vinegar to form a potent cleaning formula that can actually be used all over the house (see below) but is great on carpets because it won’t discolour or otherwise damage the carpet while also lifting stains right out.
First put baking soda right on the carpet stain, then spray on a 1:1 mix of white vinegar and water and spray over the baking soda. Then you wait for up to an hour for it to do the work. Next, you scrub the soda and then just vacuum up the residue.
Use 5: Kitchen and Bathroom Cleaner
Yes, you can once again combine baking soda with water to make a paste, or vinegar, or even lemon juice to form simple but potent household cleaners that free you from using harsher bleach-based cleaners. You can use these mixtures to clean ovens, countertops, microwaves, kitchen and bathroom tiles, showers and bathtubs, sinks — just about any surface that gets stained or worn-looking just from general use.
Use 6: Mouthwash
Baking soda isn’t just a great cleaning agent for your surfaces, but you can even use it to create a simple homemade mouthwash. It will save you some money buying branded mouthwash products. It’s not necessarily the best antibacterial agent, but it can help to lower the pH level of your saliva, which in itself prohibits excessive bacterial growth in your mouth.
All you need to make baking soda mouthwash is half a teaspoon of baking soda added to about half a glass of warm water which you then just swirl around your mouth like regular mouthwash.
