Most double-acting baking powders contain both cream of tartar and an aluminum salt (along with the sodium bicarbonate). The former works at room temperature. The latter only at oven temperature. Rumford baking powder substitutes monocalcium phosphate for both the cream of tartar and the aluminum salt. It works just like regular double-acting baking powder at room temperature but it rises less in the oven. It's sort of halfway between single-acting and double-acting in that respect. I use it because I think that the regular double-acting has a nasty taste. --Doug

For stir-frying, burner shape is as important or even more important than burner power. I test drove the Miele and Dacor cooktops as well as the BlueStar rangetop we chose. (Not an apples to apples test but at first I was hesitant to give up the space to a rangetop - then when I found out how much better the BlueStar performed for stir frying I changed my mind.) The 15K BTU burners on our Bluestar that are about the same power as the Miele and Dacor burners stir fry much better because they are much more efficient at delivering heat to the bottom of the wok and they do it very evenly. The 22K BTU burner on our BlueStar is even better. When I tested the Dacor and Miele with a chicken stir fry, I put in half the chicken at a time to sear to not overload it and it still wasn't a perfect sear. When I tested the BlueStar, it was a hot day and my DH had packed the ice chest so carefully that the chicken was mostly frozen when I took it out to start cooking. But if I was going to sacrifice my drawer to the rangetop it better be good so I put in all the chicken at once and the BlueStar immediately had it sizzling and seared perfectly. The food really tasted different cooked on the BlueStar. I highly recommend calling around the appliance stores to see if you can find one with the types of burner you are considering hooked up so you can try a stir fry recipe on the burner. I took the same wok and recipe ingredients to each cooktop/rangetop I was considering and learned a lot by doing that. If Bluestar offered a single burner version of their rangetop, that is what I would recommend to you. If you don't have a chance to do that, what you want to look for is a burner that has a shape to deliver heat efficiently and evenly to the bottom of a wok. An example of a bad type of shape is the sealed burner like on the Dacor and Miele cooktops. These have a flat circular top and flame comes out of the side of the circle. The higher you turn the burner up, the more the flame shoots out to the side; no flame goes up in the center of the burner. An example of a type that works really well for a wok is the BlueStar burner shape where the flame comes straight up out of the burner. The burner shape has a circle of flame at the center of the burner and 8 star rays of flame coming out from that circle. The center grate comes off the burner so that the wok sits right down into the flame and heat is delivered to the whole bottom of the wok. This is very similar to the wok arrangements I saw in China. A friend has the DCS wok burner and that does a very good job. We have the Miele oven. I'm very happy with its cooking performance but I find its controller kind of annoying at times. Its heating is very stable and accurate. It cooks bread well. Things I don't like: Maximum timer setting is 59 minutes and 59 seconds. I'd gladly give up the seconds to have a timer that times longer than an hour. If you put in the time and then forget to hit the button that starts the timer, it waits a bit and then cancels the timer. Too many modes - for example they have a proofing mode that only allows two temps (both higher than I would usually want to proof at) and a defrost mode with a wide range of temps (which is what I use for proofing because I can set it to 80 or 90 degrees). One ends up having to learn little tricks like which baking mode lets you set the temp up to 550 degrees (most of the modes stop at 500). If the BlueStar ovens had been available when we were choosing, I'd have been very tempted to choose them. I'm short and the side opening door would be easier for me. The one downside is that they aren't self-cleaning and I'm rather addicted to not having to clean my oven. How is your breaker box occupancy? Ours is full. If you want to add that other oven at a later date, will you have a 220 V breaker spot open? That might be one reason to choose between gas and electric ovens.

Both products make baked goods rise...produce gas within and make the cake or whatever rise...theya re leavening agents. Baking soda is bicarbonate of soda and will produce gas in the presence of an acid, like brown sugar, molasses, honey, chocolate, sour cream, butter milk, lemon juice etc. Baking powder is bicarbonate of soda and alnother chemical like sodium aluminum sulfate, and a calcium salt, that produces gas in the presence of a liquid and again when heated. When mixed with a liquid, the acid of the sulfate combines with the sodium bi carb and produces a rise...and the other ingredient reacts with heat and produces another rise. That's why baking powder loses it's ability to leaven when exposed to moisture... Linda C

I actually have cookie recipes that call for part cornstarch, part flour--and they're delicious. Actually I like the taste better than all flour for cookies and sometimes do that even in recipes that don't call for cornstarch. But a teaspoon or two of cornstarch wouldn't make any difference in the taste. Either the kids are reacting to your telling them something is different, or you maybe made another mistake, too? As to the baking soda you left out of your cookies--yes, it's Baking Soda in CC cookies because they're made with brown sugar (baking soda is used in recipes that contain acid--Brown sugar does). Cookies don't rise that much. Many have no leavening agent at all. Leaving the baking soda out will not ruin your cc's--I never use more than half of it, because the full amount gives that awful, chemical baking soda taste. Your cookies may be more shortbreadlike, but definitely don't throw them away--they're still edible.