# What's alum used for in cooking?



## Caslon

I've watched old cartoons where the bird gets the cat to eat alum powder and he can't swallow the bird. I see it at store spice sections too. I've not yet read any recipe where alum was one of the ingredients.


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## Steve Kroll

I haven't seen alum sold anywhere in years.

My grandmother used to use it to make her pickles crunchier. But I don't see any recipes that call for it anymore. I'm not sure why.


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## Greg Who Cooks

Leavener, thickener, pickling agent. Useful as comedic agent in cartoons. 

I don't think it has much application in modern cooking, except as an ingredient to pickling mixes. I could be wrong. I have lots of experience at being wrong.


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## Dawgluver

Gramma used it in her pickles.  I think alum is derived from aluminum, deemed somewhat poisonous nowadays.


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## Greg Who Cooks

Wikipedia article: Alum


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## Caslon

So, pickling is pretty much it, for most kitchen users of alum. OK. 
The thing is, I never saw it on my local store shelves that much before, I see it now and think of 50's cartoons.


Another tidbit about alum:
"Alum was used by bakers in England during the 1800s to make bread whiter".


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## 4meandthem

We use it in homemade playdough.


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