Baking soda/sodium bicarbonate for the pool- can I bake with it?

[My Cuppa Tea]

I'm in the middle of baking cornbread with no way to get to the store. I just realized I'm out of baking soda.

We have a big bag of sodium bicarbonate we bought at the pool supply store for the swimming pool. It says arm & hammer on it and that it's certified for use in drinking water. I know baking soda *is* sodium bicarbonate. Is this safe to use to bake with? Can I use it in my cornbread?

If so, I'll just scoop out a mason jar full and use it in the kitchen instead of buying the little orange box.

What say ye?

[Andy M.]

If it's safe for drinking, it's safe for cornbread. Just be sure it's 100% bicarb. I used to use Arm and Hammer baking soda in the pool and it worked great.

[Claire]

We used to buy huge amounts of Arm & Hammer for the pool. I wish I could remember what show it was, when, but I once saw a TV show where they used various soda products to make Irish soda bread, just to see if anyone knew the difference. Everything from pool products to kitty litter sanitizer. If I remember correctly, the kitty litter sanitizer was the favorite bread. The fact is if it is soda and only soda, I guess there isn't that much of a difference. At any rate, where we lived many people had pools and we simply bought the very same soda you cook with, only in larger boxes. I cooked out of the same box.

[suziquzie]

My husband bakes a box of soda all by itself and dissolves it in a gallon of water for using to adjust the ph in our reef aquarium. The stuff is so versatile!