What is cream of tarter and where do you find it?

I really can't tell you exactly what it is but i know that you can buy it the spice section in any grocery store.

you can find it in the baking isle at the grocery store

Isn't it funny how we use things and really have no idea what they are.

Cream of Tartar is a natural, pure ingredient left behind after grape juice has fermented to wine, according to the dictionary anyway! I find it in the spices/salt/pepper area of my grocery store. It's called for in a lot of cookie recipes. I have found if I leave it out of my cookies, they get hard.

I looked this up just a week or so ago. Cream of tartar is a type of sodium, if memory serves. I think I looked on ask.com .

Edited because I must have been on something to remember it as being sodium. It's not at all. Here's a link with a good explanation:

http://www.ochef.com/933.htm

Cream of tartar is added to egg whites when whipping to stabilize them. It is a white powder and you can get it at your local grocery store near the spices and flavorings. It's pretty cheap. Maybe someone else can tell you what else you can use it for.

I find it's actually relatively expensive in the grocery store (you can actually buy it in a spice bottle... look for a white powder) ... I buy it at my local Bulk Barn for a fraction of the price!

I can remember in my high school home ec. class making ginger bread houses and adding cream of tartar to the icing that we used to hold the houses together, like when we assembled them and were "gluing" the walls together. It made the icing very hard once it dried, harder than royal icing and when we weren't using it we had to keep a damp cloth over the bowl it was in.

I was reading it in Antonias royal icing recipe I just did not have a clue where to look for it I immediately think tarter sause when I hear cream of tarter but knew that definitly would not be anything close LOL

I would not recomend using tarter sauce! I don't think your cookies would come out very well. Just call it a hunch!

BTW.... welcome to Cake Central.

I know sounds gross huh! I just could not figure out what it was.

I don't have an answer for you, however I will tell you this;

The only stupid question is the one you don't ask!"
-(from the TV show E.R.)

Luv,
Becca

I use cream of tarter in both my cooked icing recipes and in merangue. It keeps the merangue stabilized and beautiful!! I make 2 different kinds of cooked icing, one chocolate, one caramel, and it's just poured over the cake. The cream of tarter actually helps keep the icing from crystalizing. I don't know what else it's used for, those are the only things I use it for. I add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp to my recipes. HTH

Okay, I don't know the what it does to food, but my foods teacher ( yes, the name of the course was Foods) in high school was kinda off the wall and always was teaching us useless trivia about everything.

Did you know:

Cream of tartar can be used as a laxative?
Cream of tartar can clean light stains off of porcelain?

just thought i'd share!

GinaJuarez, that's comforting!! I may stop using it in my food! LOL

[
Did you know:

Cream of tartar can be used as a laxative?
Cream of tartar can clean light stains off of porcelain?

just thought i'd share![/quote]

So your telling me my guest will not be constipated? And there toilets will be cleaned in the process? LMAO

don't you love the multi-use products on the market today?!

Okay, now I'm picturing tartar sauce in my mixes. EEEEWWWW!!!

LOl you guys!!

I use cream of tartar in my playdough recipe...

so cream of tarter is also for molding HEE HEE

Used as a stabilizer.

Also used as a moisture inhibitor in pulled/blown sugar recipes. It is typically weak for this purpose. But it can be used.