Leavening produces fermentation; it produces gas, air, or steam that expands when heated, making a food lighter. It alters the texture of grains.
The main 3 Leavening products are: Yeast, Baking Powder & Baking Soda.
Yeast, when it is mixed with sugar, produces carbon dioxide - as long as the moisture levels & temperature is conducive to this.
Baking powder has a chemical reaction that releases some of its gas when mixed with liquids, and the rest when heated. The following are descriptions of products and their category:
Baking Soda is an ingredient of baking powder; for it to be used as leaven, it has to be combined with an acidic food (or liquid) such as sour milk, vinegar, molasses, lemon juice, buttermilk or cream of tartar.
(A more comprehensive list):
· Baker's Ammonia, aka Ammonium Carbonate, aka Baking Ammonia, aka “Hartshorn” - which is “ aqueous ammonia solution used as smelling salts, formerly prepared from the horns of deer.”
· Baker's Yeast
· Baking Powder, aka Baking Soda, aka Bicarbonate of Soda, aka Sodium Bicarbonate
· Bicarbonate of Soda
· Double-Acting Baking Powder, aka Double-Action Baking Powder
· Single-Acting Baking Powder, aka Single-Action Baking Powder
· Sodium Bicarbonate
· Sourdough starter
· Yeast
Brewers Yeast is a by-product of beer-fermentation and a rich vitamin source; especially “B-complex” vitamins. It is not used as leaven because it does not leaven.
Cream of Tartar is a by-product of wine production & not a leaven; it does aid in whipping up egg whites, and these, when used for the express purpose of “heightening” an “angel food” cake, could be considered a leavening. Cream of tartar is also sometimes used as a flavoring in foods & beverages.
Sourdough Starter is a form of leavening, as it is a “colony” of wild yeast that is fed on flour and water intermittently. It can be started after The Days of Unleavened Bread - and kept all year until the next Days of Unleavened Bread.
Yeast Extract is used in dehydrated & canned soups. It cannot leaven as it is an extract.
There are different “schools of thought” about what to remove & throw away before Passover and The Days of Unleavened Bread. Some choose to throw out toothpaste with baking soda, some do not, (as it is not a leavened bread product). Some may throw away their washing soda, used in making homemade laundry detergent - some do not, and some get rid of all wine and beer - and again, some do not. Even some pet-foods may contain forms of leavening, and some have thrown it out, others not... because these things; toothpaste, laundry detergent, beverages and pet-food are not bread, cookie, cracker or cake-like products that have been leavened by a leavening agent.
Let us consider these verses, pray about our own decision making process in getting leaven out of our homes, and then make our own decisions as Almighty Yahweh guides us to:
Exodus 12:15-17 "Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And you shall observe The Feast of Unleavened Bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever."
Exodus 13:6-7 "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Yahweh. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with you, neither shall there be leaven seen with you in all your quarters."
Leviticus 23:6-8 "And on the fifteenth day of the same month is The Feast of Unleavened Bread unto Yahweh: seven days you must eat unleavened bread. In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein. But you shall offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein."
Matthew 16:6-12 "Then Yahshua said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Yahshua perceived, He said unto them, O you of little faith, why reason you among yourselves, because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you do not understand that I spoke it not to you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."
Romans 14:22-23 "Do you have belief? Have it to yourself before Elohim. Blessed is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts, if he eats, is condemned, because it is not of belief, and all that is not of belief is sin."
May we all make decisions prayerfully and also with some good old "common sense," not forgetting also that leaven - during these Days - represents sin in all it's forms, and as we put the leaven out of our homes, may we consider our walk in the Way of YHWH and our progress on that walk, in putting all sin out of our lives.
HALLELUYAH!
c Green Bay Sabbath Fellowship - 2019/2022
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