Cream of Tartar

Have you ever wondered what Cream of Tartar is? Well, Cream of Tartar is used in cooking mainly as a substitute for baking powder. Baking powder is mainly a combination of cream of Tartar and Baking soda. You can use as a substitute for Baking powder 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar. Cream of Tartar is also used to give a creamier texture to sugary things, like candy and frosting - as well as to stabilize and increase volume in meringue. Cream of Tartar has an indefinite shelf life if kept tightly closed and stored away from heat.

An interesting fact about cream of Tartar is that it is actually tartaric acid. Tartaric acid is a brownish-red acid powder that is precipitated onto the walls of casks used to age wine. When refined into a white acid powder, ‘cream of tartar’ is created. McCormick & Company obtains its supply of Cream of Tartar from Italy, where very small people crawl through the very small holes in open wine casks to scrape out the residue left after the wine has been fermented and drained out.