Biscuit blues.

2 cups flour 1 Tbsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/3 cup shortening about 3/4 cup water

DIRECTEONS: Mix dry ingredients. Add shortening and mix just until crumbly. Stir in most of water. Add more water as needed to make a soft, non-sticky dough.

Knead dough gently 10-12 times. Pat or roll to make a 1/2-inch thick sheet. Cut into 2-inch squares.

Place square on ungreased baking sheet, in inch apart. Bake at 450 [degrees] F until golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Yields 12 biscuits.

When I sat down to eat one of my creations at the end of the show, I got my first clue that there was a difference. They were a bit on the flat side and slightly overbrowned, but I figured butter and jam would make them look just fine.

Lucky for me the cameras had stopped rolling by the time I took my first bite. Yuck! I spit bitter biscuit crumbs all over the table and downed a glass of milk to kill the taste.

Disasters like this could destroy my ratings. So I quickly told my producers never to air the show. Then I called a few cooking experts to find out exactly what had gone wrong.

BASIC CHEMISTRY

What I learned was that paying attention in chemistry class can prevent cooking catastrophes. Baking soda is a base, explains Lynn Turner, a professor of food science at North Carolina State University. In order to make your cakes, cookies, breads, and biscuits rise, he says, the base has to be neutralized by an acid. Why? Because a product of this neutralization reaction is what actually makes the dough rise--carbon dioxide ([CO.subl2]) gas bubbles.

So normally, when a recipe calls for baking soda, continues Turner, "you add something [acidic] like buttermilk to generate some [CO.sub.2] as a leavening agent."

So, I muse, that's where the bubbles in buttermilk pancake batter come from.

Right, says Turner. When the pancakes are cooked, the finished product is light and airy.

But my bombed version of the biscuit recipe and no acid. So the basic baking soda remained in the mixture, unreacted, says Turner. The biscuits tasted bitter, as bases usually do. And they didn't rise much because there were no [CO.sub.2] bubbles.

The lack of acid is probably why the recipe called for baking powder, not baking soda, Turner explains.

"Baking powder already has the acid included in it." Basically, baking powder is one part baking soda (a base) and two parts cream of tartar (an acid), plus some other stuff to prevent the two from reacting too fast. When

the baking powder dissolves in water, the acid and base react, neutralize each other, and produce [CO.sub.2] bubbles to make the dough rise.

Result: Better, not bitter, biscuits. Try making the biscuits both ways to see for yourself.

Then, if you're like me, you'll start to wonder what would happen if you used orange juice (an acid) instead of watch with the baking soda....

As I take out my mixing bowls to begin experimenting, I get an idea for a new TV show. Stay tuned for Karen's Kitchen Kemistry . . . coming soon?