A little wonder essential to have in your kitchen cupboard.

Some of its many uses apart from cooking include:

- Give your drains a great clean with bicarbonate of soda followed a few minutes later by white vinegar. The foam it creates gives a sparkling clean and removes all clog

- Mix into a paste to shine sinks

- Sprinkle on carpets to clean and neutralise odours

- Add a little bowl to the fridge to neutralise odours

- Lift blackened marks off saucepans: Put the bicarb in a parmesan shaker and the vinegar in a spray bottle and sprinkle the bicarb on the saucepan first, then spray with white vinegar. When it fizzes, give it a good scrub, then rinse.