Soda bread published containing a recipe for Soda Cake. In Europe, soda breads began to appear in the mid-19th century when bicarbonate of soda first became available for use as a raising agent. Breads, griddle cakes and scones with bicarbonate of soda, plus cream of tartar or tartaric acid became popular in Austria, Britain, Ireland and Poland. Traditional soda bread, eaten in Serbian cuisine, also uses bicarbonate of soda, particularly the traditional "česnica" (Serbian Cyrillic: Чесница), a soda bread made at Christmas. In Ireland, the flour is typically made from soft wheat, so soda bread is best made with a cake or
Sodium bicarbonate soda can also be useful in removing splinters from the skin. Some alternative practitioners, such as Tullio Simoncini, have promoted baking soda as a cancer cure, which the American Cancer Society has warned against due to both its unproven effectiveness and potential danger in use. Sodium bicarbonate can be added to local anesthetics, to speed up the onset of their effects and make their injection less painful. It is also a component of Moffett's solution, used in nasal surgery. As early as the 1920s, bicarbonate was found to cause increased bone strength in patients who were losing calcium in their