Anybody else get an unpleasant taste from sodium bicarb/baking powder in baking

[ohreallyIsee]

I've noticed that sometimes when eating things containing sodium bicarb I get an unpleasant soapy taste coating my tongue.

Nobody else in our house does, for example dh had some soda bread a friend at work had made, he thought it was great but to me it tasted like soap, similarly with some scones a different friend had made he and dd thought they were lovely but not for me.

Googling it seems that it can happen with not enough acid to react but also that some people are more sensitive to the taste so I was wondering if anyone else here has found this

Only on occasion when too much has been used.

I get it with bicarbonate, not baking powder. Most chocolate cake and ginger cake recipes seem to have sodium bicarb in and it’s all I can taste - hate it!

Exactly this. I don't like anything made with bicarb. I also i can't eat anything with artificial sweetener in as it just tastes disgusting.

Yes, I hate soda bread (think that's bicarb?). Everyone around me seems to find it delicious.

DH made soda bread recently and used 1tbsp instead of 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda. It was not pleasant. I don’t like soda bread anyway and don’t consider it actual bread.

Yes, I have read online about it being from old powders, but it's just the same with fresh.
Weirdly, self raising flour doesn't have the same problem, so if the recipe uses plain flour plus baking powder, I just use sr instead.
If I need to add bicarb, I usually use half the recommended amount.

Was this thread inspired by bake off? Paul and nigella were talking about this continually last night!

I am the same with sweeteners and find it curious that others are not the same. I don’t have this bicarbonate thing though. Maybe some people have particularly sensitive tastebuds for certain substances.

Me, it tastes really strong in a lot of things. Sweetener is horrible too

Is this related to the fact that some people think coriander tastes soapy? Just different tastebuds. It’s genetic I think.

Maybe but I love coriander!

It was the scones the friend made, I had one at lunchtime and really noticed the taste. I've made soda bread before and it's been.fine but inthe one his friend had made the taste was overpowering.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this, it's really weird when everybody is saying something's delicious and all I can taste is soap.

I saw a thing on bbc2 once about this. The taste of too much bicarbonate is why baking powder was invented. Baking powder is 50/50 bicarbonate and Cream of Tartar. CoT is also a raising agent, but doesn’t taste so bad!

Yes but only when I use too much.

I am fine with sweeteners however things like glucose syrup and other liquid sweeteners I find horrible. Overpowering.

I hate the taste of baking powder and just use self raising flour instead.

I can always taste baking powder, but bicarb if used in the right proportion for the recipe is fine for me.