# cream of tartar **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455 "2003-04-22T23:57:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mimi\_McQueeny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@Mimi\_McQueeny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mimi_McQueeny)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/1 "2003-04-22T23:57:46Z")
What _is_ cream of tartar, anyway? I buy it, I use it in my baking; and I know enough to buy a fresh package regularly. But I don’t know what it is. On the list of ingredients on the package, it just says, “cream of tartar.” Does anyone know where this stuff comes from? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/2 "2003-04-23T00:01:51Z")
[Google is your friend.](http://www.foodreference.com/html/fcreamoftartar.html) > [@](#): > > Tartaric acid is a brownish-red acid powder (potassium bitartrate) that is precipitated onto the walls of casks used to age wine. When refined into a white acid powder, ‘cream of tartar’, it is used in baking. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/3 "2003-04-23T00:05:55Z")
Laboratories, mostly. One of the master’s disciples touches on the subject [here](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbakingsoda.html). According to [AllRecipes.com](http://www.allrecipes.com/encyc/terms/c/6083.asp), it is “A fine white powder derived from a crystalline acid deposited on the inside of wine barrels. Cream of tartar is added to candy and frosting mixtures for a creamier consistency, and to egg whites before beating to improve stability and volume. It’s also used as the acid ingredient in some baking powders.” ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/4 "2003-04-23T00:26:44Z")
I always wondered the same thing. Especially after my experience years ago: I was living in Germany and wanted to make a lemon merange pie and needed Cream Of Tartar. Looked it up, “doppelteweinsteinsauere” and went to the local pharmacy. They had it, but when I said I was using it to cook with, I thought the pharmacist was going to have a heart attack. She sold it to me anyway, but before I was even out the door, I could hear her telling the other pharmacists about the crazy American who was using that stuff for food. (None of my German friends at the time had ever heard of it, and had no idea why the pharmacy would have had it. I assume there is another use.) ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/5 "2003-04-23T01:23:05Z")
I’ve always wondered how someone made the connection between “the white crap left in the wine cask” and “stiffer beaten egg whites”. ---
**Author:** ![Mimi\_McQueeny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@Mimi\_McQueeny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mimi_McQueeny)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/6 "2003-04-23T15:30:49Z")
“Doppelte Weinsteinsauere”? Wow, I’ll have to make a note of that, for the next time I want to bake snicker doodles, while traveling in central Europe. Thanks! (Snicker doodles are another thing that just don’t turn out right without the “white crap left in the wine cask.” Who woulda thunk it.) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/7 "2003-04-23T19:11:40Z")
\ Before Louis Pasteur developed pasteurization and the rabies vaccine, he made a discovery about tartaric acid. It was known that natural tartaric acid rotated polarized light in one direction but synthesized tartaric acid didn’t. Pasteur showed that the synthetic product didn’t rotate polarized light because it was composed of two different types of crystals, one which rotated polarized light in the same direction as the natural product, and one which rotated it in the opposite direction. He did this by examining individual crystals under a microscope using polarized light. He sorted the crystals manually with this method to produce a sample of this previously unknown form of the compound. It was the first demonstration of molecules with opposite handedness. [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis\_Pasteur](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur) \ ---
**Author:** ![guava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/71e660/32.png) [@guava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guava)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/8 "2003-04-23T21:16:54Z")
Cream of tartar is the _best_ bathtub cleaner. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/9 "2003-04-25T01:43:48Z")
Cream of tartar is already in baking powder as the acidic ingredient needed to mix with the base-ic ingredient of baking soda. When wet and mixed they produce gas bubbles (non-toxic) that make baked goods fluffier. If you don’t have baking powder (which can be hard to store, since, over time, the dry ingredients will start reacting with eachother), then recipes will tell have you put in the separate ingredients of baking soda and cream of tartar. Sometimes, lemon juice is used as an acidic alternative to cream of tartar. More at [How Stuff Works](http://www.howstuffworks.com/question57.htm). ## Peace. OK, I’ve creamed the raw ground beef, what’s next? ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cream-of-tartar/170455/10 "2003-04-25T21:21:06Z")
Here’s a recipe for cleaning baked on grease on baking dishes: mix cream of tartar and white vinegar together until you get a paste. Apply this paste to the burned on grease and let it set a couple of minutes. Scrub with a scrub pad. I’ve used this method on previously hopeless cases and couldn’t believe how much burned on crud it got rid of.