Why Victorian bakers used smelling salts to make their buttermilk cakes rise perfectly
In short: Before modern baking powder became a kitchen staple, bakers relied on chemical leaveners like ammonium carbonate to create lift. Often called hartshorn or baker’s ammonia, this pungent compound—the same substance found in smelling salts—was a secret weapon for achieving light, airy textures in vintage cookies, crackers, and cakes.
The 1899 Dominion Cookbook, compiled by Anne Clark, offers a rare glimpse into the chemical ingenuity of late 19th-century home cooks. In a recipe for Buttermilk Cakes, the leavening agent is not yeast or baking soda, but ammonium carbonate. This compound functions by releasing carbon dioxide and ammonia gas when exposed to heat, which expands the dough. Because the ammonia gas dissipates entirely during the baking process, the finished product retains no trace of the chemical's sharp, characteristic odor or taste.
While baking soda and baking powder began to transform baking practices after the 1850s, ammonium carbonate remained a specialized tool. It was less common in English-language cookbooks but held a firm place in Scandinavian and Eastern European traditions, particularly for creating thin, crisp textures. For the Victorian cook, obtaining this ingredient was a simple matter of visiting a local druggist to purchase the base compound, specifically without the aromatic additives typically found in commercial smelling salts.
Testing these historic recipes reveals both the precision and the ambiguity of Victorian-era instructions. A typical recipe might call for a pint of buttermilk mixed with enough flour to form a dough, combined with a tablespoon of dissolved carbonate of ammonia. The dough is then rolled into sheets, cut into cakes, and baked in a moderate oven. While modern bakers might find these instructions vague, the process highlights a time when understanding the chemical reactions of ingredients was a fundamental part of domestic life, long before the convenience of standardized leavening agents became the global norm.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: That Old Cookbook Called for Ammonia - So I Baked It
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