Does the age and associated pH of buttermilk influence the sensory properties of soda bread?

Culinary proverbs, tips and tricks, or old wives’ tales lead to many variations in a recipe. In Molecular and Physical Gastronomy, the term “culinary precisions” is used to describe any piece of information that has something to do with the technical description of the dish, but does not belong to the definition (that is the minimum required to make the dish). The aim of this study was to test the culinary precision that “using aged-cultured buttermilk” (which should be more acidic than fresh buttermilk) improves the sensory properties of soda bread by promoting the chemical reactions between the acidic buttermilk and the alkaline sodium hydrogencarbonate. Three samples of cultured buttermilk (fresh, medium-aged, most-aged) were used to make three soda breads using the same recipe. The pH of each buttermilk sample was tested in triplicate and the values attained were within the acceptable range of 4.41 to 4.83 . Each of the three soda breads were assessed by a semi-trained panel (n = 15) for the sensory attributes of pore size, likeability, acidity and density and there were no significant differences found (p  ≥ 0.05) between the samples. It was concluded that while the culinary precision seemed true it was false.