Here’s some information on cream of tartar.
Cream of tartar is also called potassium acid tartrate (or potassium bitartrate). It is a by-product of the red-wine industry. The red-brown cystalline substance (argol) is scraped from the inside of the wine cask, refined, dried and grounded.
Cream of tartar is used, in very small amounts, to stabilize the white of the eggs (1/8 tsp per egg white) used to make meringues, sweets, or frosting. It ensures that the product comes out creamy. It is also used to reduce the discoloration in vegetables (1 tsp. to the water) when boiling and is also used to make a thick paste to gently clean copper cookware.
Cream of tartar has an infinite shelf-life once stored properly. There is no known negative safety information on it. You may be wondering why I’m talking about cream of tartar, but stick around for the next post; I’ll show you one of it’s use in Trini cooking.
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I’ve seen cream of tartar being used in meringues but I’ve never used it and my meringues are great.
Interesting, I never knew where Cream of tartar came from. I just saw my mum put it on her cake recipes. Good post.
i’ve been looking for cream of tartar here in germanny but it seems that this ingredient is never used in this country. i actually wanted to do a meringue based recipe but i guess it’ll have to do without it.