Fluff master: Swetha Sivakumar, on the rise of Eno

How did a digestive aid make its into way into recipes for breads, jalebis and appams? What can and can’t it do? Answers, in this week’s Sound Bites.

Open a Victorian novel and it isn’t long before one encounters a doctor prescribing, to some heartsick heroine or beloved papa, a restorative spell in a region with hot springs (Bath, in England; Spa, in Belgium).

The minerals in these springs have long been known to have healing properties. By the 18th century (a tad before the Victorian era, which stretched from 1837 to 1901), doctors in Europe were beginning to decode why.

Around the mid-1800s, then, in what is

An ad for the fruit salt, dating to 1911. (Wikimedia Commons)

After thus making its way from restorative salt to digestive aid, the brand underwent another transformation. By the 1980s, it was being adopted by busy homemakers, as a quick-acting leavening agent.

Numerous cookbooks and women’s magazines have listed Eno as an ingredient in recipes for dishes ranging from breads to jalebis and appams. Many home chefs in India still use it in idlis and dhoklas.

“It was adopted, particularly by beginners, because it is a far more forgiving ingredient than baking powders,” says Shubhangi Jain, a baking instructor and friend. Since it is milder, measurements need not be exact. It has no lingering aftertaste, unlike baking soda, where even a little too much can make a dish taste soapy.

Eno has significant drawbacks as a leavening agent. Where baking soda and baking powder help batter rise by producing carbon-dioxide as the mix heats, Eno reacts instantly. This means that the batter will not rise much more in the oven than it has outside it. And that’s if the batter is thick enough to trap the carbon dioxide produced. If the batter isn’t thick enough, the gas escapes before the mix is in the oven, and the result is a deflated or collapsed confection.

Idli and dhokla batters are in the Goldilocks zone, in this respect: not too thin, not too thick, but just right. As a result, Eno can help a busy homemaker do away with the long fermentation process altogether or help out an under-fermented batter, if the mix is steamed as soon as it is made.

I like to think that if James Eno had eaten a dhokla cooked in this way, he would have appreciated the inventiveness. I must admit I prefer traditional fermentation; I find that it tastes better. But I am excited about trying Shubangi’s favourite fruit-salt hack: mixing a little of the powder into Rooh Afza, for a fizzy cool drink on a hot day.

(To reach Swetha Sivakumar with questions or feedback, email upgrademyfood@gmail.com)