December 9, 2022 • 31 mins
This kitchen staple – useful in everything from baked goods to meringues to boiled vegetables – is a byproduct of the wine industry. Anney and Lauren get a rise out of the science and history of cream of tartar.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeart Radio. I'm
Any and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an
episode for you about cream of Tartar, Yes, Yes, which
has been on our list since the very very beginning.
Uh yeah, And it's really scientifically and historically, not like complicated,
(00:32):
but complex, like there's a lot there's a lot of
moving pieces in this one and so um, so we've
been putting it off, but um but this is like
sort of we were asked to do a holiday episode
and this was the topic that we chose because we
were weird nerds. We were we weren't like, oh man,
(00:52):
let's do gingerbread cookies, although I mean we have already
done gingerbread, so we couldn't. But but at any rate, yeah,
like we didn't do something like that, Like we were like, oh,
let's talk about cream of tartar, very important into baking
it is. Yeah, And so this gout kicks started because
super producer Andrew was like, hey, have you heard about
(01:12):
cream of charge? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah that too, right right.
It was this dovetail yes, and I was like, been
on my list since forever because every time I tell
somebody what cream of tartar is? That same moment happens
where they're like, are you kidding? Now? I would never
joke about wine residue. That's a really useful kitchen chemical.
(01:35):
I would never um. But I believe I've told this
story several times on the show, and I'll tell it again.
I was in college when I realized baking powder and
baking soda were not interchangeable things. And a good friend
of mine, who I would say had her life more
together than I did, told me about well, you know,
(01:58):
cream of tartar, which she told me and we're going
to talk about this, but she told me it was
a difference between them as one has cream of tartar
and one doesn't. And I was like, we was a
cream of tartar. Oh no, my whole life is a lie.
But it was a very big learning experience for me.
So I think one of the first topics I put
on our list was baking powder, baking soda, cream tartar. Yeah,
(02:25):
I'm It's something that I was fairly familiar with from
a fairly young age because my grandmama lou um Uh,
taught me to to to bake when I was growing
up and things like snickerdoodles. Not a lot of baking
recipes still call for cream of tartar specifically, Like a
(02:45):
lot of the time, baking powder is the thing that's
used as a leavener. But uh and and cream of
tartar isn't usually involved in baking powder anymore. We're talking
more about all of this, uh and throughout the outline.
But um, but but yeah, but in snickerdoodles specifically, uh,
cream of tartar is usually in the ingredients list. And
(03:06):
so yeah, so I've kind of always had it in
my life, but only pretty recently learned about it, I
think when we did our Muffins episode. Yep um. This
episode is also super fun because of just the breadth
of different other episodes we get to refer to in it. Yes,
(03:31):
I was trying to phrase it to Lauren earlier, but
it's kind of an episode that tells the story of
so many other things through its not being there or
being there but being the side character. Yeah, it's fascinating. Yeah,
oh yeah, cream of charter. I guess this brings us
(03:53):
to our question, cream of tartar? What is it? Well,
a cream of tartar is a compound that has all
kinds of useful properties in cooking because it's basically just
a mild acid that comes in a powdered crystal format. Um.
(04:15):
It's a white powder found in little canisters and either
the spicyle sometimes the baking aisle of stores. It shows
up in recipes for baked goods and desserts and other
things that incorporate a whipped cream or whipped eggs. Also
in candies and in boiled vegetables and in cleaning products. UM.
It's like lemon juice or vinegar in powder form, but
(04:39):
without other flavors involved. It's like a it's like a
food grade multitool or or I guess to your point
a minute ago, it's like a. It's like a really
good character actor that you kind of almost don't notice
until you realize that they're so critical. Yes one THO
(05:00):
exactly love it. Um. The chemical name is potassium by
tartrate um or potassium hydrogen tartrate so um. SO. It's
the potassium salt form of an acid called tartaric acid,
which is a carbacilic acid which are commonly occurring at
(05:21):
typically weak acids and uh creep of tartar is actually
a byproduct of the wine industry. M okay, so Twotaric
acid is a compound that's found in grapes. Um. It's
one of the things that makes them tart. When it
is partially neutralized, like like on the pH scale, UM,
(05:41):
it can form up with potassium, which is also found
in grapes, to create molecules of potassium by tartrate. And
these are pretty soluble in warm water based solutions, but
will crystallize and settle out of the solution at cooler
temperatures like UM, like below twenty celsius or seventy fahrenheit UM,
and especially below like ten celsius or fifty fahrenheit, which
(06:04):
hey is totally cellar temperature to like cold cellar temperature
all right. In the wine industry, um these uh, these,
these crystals are sometimes called wine crystals or wine diamonds. Um.
You may have noticed them yourself at the bottom of
a bottle of wine or um like in a crunchy
little layer on the bottom of the cork when you
(06:25):
open it. Yeah. Um. They're harmless in wine and like
not an indicator that anything has gone bad. Some wine
experts actually like seeing them because it's a sign that
a wine hasn't been like processed too much. Uh. But
that's not how it's manufactured. Like, no one is like
filtering finished bottles of wine or like scraping them off
of corks um and then sending them into some kind
(06:46):
of that's not that's not what's going on. UM. So
when you make wine, UM, you let the juice or
must ferment and sometimes age in a vat or barrel
with yeast. Then you separate the liquid wine from the
LEAs the like the dead yeast in any sediments by
straining or draining as you bottle it. Usually um. You
(07:08):
can see our Champagne episode for more on that UM.
And I know, right, serious throwback um. And so what
you're left with is those leaves, some some dead yeast,
and other sediments probably including like sort of a bunch
of potassium by tar trade um, that can then be
(07:29):
washed out and sent off and purified and powdered and sold. Um.
The raw stuff that's sent off is sometimes called our
goal by the way. Okay, yeah I didn't read about
why I didn't look into that, but okay, so so
so potassium by tar trade or cream of tartar Um
(07:49):
is just incredibly useful because it is mildly acidic and
it doesn't have other flavors, and it's a dry powder,
so you don't have water molecules in there like mucking
anything up. Um. So yeah, let's go. This is like
a long list of uses. Um, it's amazing. Uh Okay.
(08:11):
One that we've talked about on the show before, and
as we alluded to in our intro um uh during
our discussion on muffins um, is that it is a
part of leaveners for baked goods. Leaveners are the stuff
that you add to help make to bake goods nice
and light and fluffy. Generally, these are compounds that will
create carbon dioxide bubbles in your dough, giving it a
(08:34):
physical lift and expansion um, and then that the heat
of your oven sets the dough around those bubbles, nice,
light and airy um. The most popular leavener modern lye
is baking powder, which is made up of baking soda,
which is sodium bicarbonate um plus some kind of dry
form of acid, and when this mixture is subjected to moisture,
(08:56):
the two will react with each other to produce carbon dioxide. Bubbles. Um. Originally,
cream of tartar was the acid used in baking powder.
These days it's more likely to be something cheaper UM,
but recipes will still sometimes call for um cream of
tartar plus baking soda, or maybe for baking powder plus
an extra kick a cream of tartar, depending on what
people are going for, and that is partially because of
(09:20):
cream of tartars other cool properties UM like, for example,
if you are whipping egg whites or cream um, the
acidity of cream of tartar what will help the proteins
in there unfurl and then stick together softly around the
air bubbles that you're whipping in without without sticking together
so hard that they go rigid and then push water out.
(09:43):
You might have had that happen to you when when
you're whipping eggs or cream um. You know it's expanding
and peeking up nicely, and then suddenly it breaks and
goes lumpy and wet. UM. A little bit of cream
tartar can help prevent that. Cream of tartar can also
make cakes and meringues look brighter and wider UM because well,
(10:05):
we'll a because the acidity and it will turn a
pigment in flour clear instead of sort of parchment colored
UM and b because of that whipping thing. Because you
can you can get the air bubbles in a batter
or in a meringue smaller UM, which means that the
particles of cake or meringue around them are going to
be smaller, which means that they reflect light just a
(10:25):
little differently and it looks brighter. That's so cool, I know.
Um okay. But furthermore, um, cream of tartar affects the
texture of sugar. UM. Sugar meaning sucros um likes being
in a crystal state and it likes clumping up. Um.
(10:48):
But if you're making like a like a smooth textured
candy or a shiny icing or like nice chewy baked goods,
you want sugar to be liquid or at the very
least like not clumpy. UM. Cream of tartar helps because
it breaks sucros down into glucose and fructose, which do
not like crystallizing and clumping up as much. And because
(11:14):
cream of tartar is lightly acidic, it can help some
kinds of colorful produce retain their color when you steam
or boil them. UM. Basically because in certain vegs that
those pigments are stored in acidic pockets. Um. So making
the whole environment that you're cooking them in more acidic
(11:36):
means that they can stay put and they're not trying
to balance out with the rest of the stuff, with
the rest of the water or whatever. Um. Also it's
great for cleaning, um, for cleaning the blackening off of
like aluminum and other metals, and for lifting rust um
and helping clear drains when when mixed with different stuff.
(12:00):
Google the cleaning uses. This is ostensibly a food show. Um.
And I've I've already talked a lot, so yeah, yeah,
well you must continue, lareen. We need to know about
the nutrition. You're generally not consuming enough cream of tartar
to make a difference. Um. And if you're thinking about
(12:20):
doing so, don't because potassium is one of the things
that like your body needs, but that you also should
not have too much of. So yeah, yeah, generally considered safe.
But but don't just eat cream of tartar. That's not
what it's for. No. Uh no. I did think it
was really interesting in reading this how many chefs had
(12:43):
such strong opinions about why you should be using a
cream of tartar because it has kind of you know,
we couldn't really find a lot of numbers, but I
would say based on these articles I read from chefs,
they were they were making the case like this is
the ingredients you need to use it, but he's using yeah. Yeah, yeah.
It's got a rep for being like a little bit
old fashioned. UM. However, okay, so so I don't have
(13:07):
firm numbers about it, but all of the like market
reports that I didn't spend thousands of dollars on UM,
the summaries we're we're indicating that it's still quite a
popular product, especially on an industrial level, and that furthermore,
um its use is growing as the growth of baked
goods in places that are not Europe and North America continues. Yes, yes,
(13:33):
it was interesting how many things were like you can't
substitute cream of tartar in this, Like sneaker doodles was
the big point it kept. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but
because um, um, if you've ever had like a really
good sneaker doodle, like it's got like a tiny bit
of tartness to it, and that's that's what that is. Yeah, yeah,
so cool. Well, yeah, we don't really have any numbers
(13:53):
other than these kind of vague understandings. But I did
see this thing. Cream of charter was huge in terms
of revolutionizing modern baking, which we're going to talk about,
but also in our understanding of three D molecular structures. Yeah, yeah,
and uh, there will be more on that in the
(14:13):
history section. But first we are going to get into
a quick break for word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. And you can see
our many wine episodes we've done. As you said, Lauren,
(14:37):
there's also a bunch of other things that this one
touches on. I would say wine episodes pretty big for sure. Yeah,
and the history of this one is a little all
over the place, um, as we also mentioned, but here
we go. We're gonna try. So. The earliest known evidence
(14:58):
of cream of tartar was a residue you discovered on
seven thousand year old wine barrels located in what is
now Iran. But it's safe to guess that as long
as we've been making wine, this waste product of wine
making has been around. Um. But yeah, for much of history,
cream of tartar was pretty much seen. It's just that
a waste product, and it was ignored. People weren't writing
(15:19):
about it, they weren't studying it, didn't care about it. Um.
It wasn't until the fourteenth century that the word tartar
appeared on our written record in terms of the wine
deposits we're talking about today, deriving from the tutark in
tutark acid. I've always been I've always struggled with that pronunciation,
but I hope that's right. The cream part, and cream
(15:40):
of tartar is still a bit of a mystery. Everybody
was like the closest thing I read was people think
it's because of the color, yeah, or like it makes
things textually creamy. I don't. I don't know. Um. Although
one more slightly mysterious atomalogy note here um The crystals
(16:01):
harvested from wine barrels or or bottles were at one
point known by the noun bees wing because they're so
like delicate and clear. I love that beautiful. I'm not
sure if it was during this time period or later on,
but at any rate, bees wing beast being it is fantastic.
(16:24):
Some evidence suggests that cream of tartar, at least some
form of it, was possibly fairly available in medieval Europe.
Um Chaucer may have mentioned cream of tartar in the
Canterbury Tales. Here's the translation of that clay made with
horse or man's hair and oil of tartar crystallized alum
yeast unfermented malt, and our goal. M Yeah, Chaucer was
(16:51):
was writing about some like shady alchemists during this bit. Um.
I'm not sure where the tartar and our goal came
into play in the whole thing. I'm I'm unfamiliar with Chaucer.
If anyone is more familiar, I let us know. Yeah, yeah, um.
(17:11):
A seventeen sixty six treatise purported that tar treats were
useful in a whole host of medicinal applications, including gout
and including which there's an illustration you can look upon
in the case of a bite of a quote. Prodigious
mad cat. Oh, prodigious mad cat. I mean that's prodigious.
(17:37):
I feel like that's most cats I've ever met. But
I know that's like, that's like does anyone does anyone
else follow Billy the cat who has the sound buttons
and like and like their owner made one that's just
as mad and like and so this cat will sometimes
sit there and just mad mad mad mad mad mad
madman Like that's a move. That's a mood right there
(18:05):
anyway anyway, uh, cream of chartar was frequently used as
a laxative during this time as well. Um. When it
comes to our modern use of cream of tartar, it
is a tale of a lot of scientists and chemists
and Baker's um. One such person was Swedish chemist C. W.
Shiel Uh in seventeen sixty eight, and basically he combined
(18:29):
the leftover solids from making wine with hot water to
dissolve the potassium by tart trait. Then the water evaporated
out and allowed for these crystals are wine diamonds to form,
and from there they were purified, packaged and sold. Still
the basic way that we're doing it, yep, yep. French
physicist Jean Baptiste Pio nailed down cream of tartar's physical
(18:51):
properties in eighteen thirty two, and then Louis Pasteur. Louis
Pasteur grew really interested in wine making and started studying
the compound left behind by why making. In Yeah, as
we talked about in our Types of Milk episode of
of all references. He was hired by a winement manufacturer
(19:14):
and then later Napoleon the Third to look into y
wines sometimes go sour. The answer is bacteria, and that's
why we have pasteurization today. But right, so he was
studying wine and um and this goes back to that
three D molecule thing um because al right, he was
studying one and noticed that lab created tutaric acid behaves
(19:35):
a little bit differently than natural tutaric acid when it
crystallizes into salt forms um like, it produces differently shaped crystals.
And so between this work and a couple other chemists
work around this time, we figured out that molecules are
in fact three dimensional, not not two dimensional as it
(19:55):
was previously kind of assumed. M hm. I'm telling you
it's so cool. You never know where their research is
gonna go. Right, And not long after this cream of
tartar became a popular ingredient in French cooking, and it
really really did change the world of baking um, as
did a lot of innovations and ingredients, processes and technologies
(20:18):
coming out around this time. Because it's like Industrial Revolution time,
so a lot of things were happening and So, for instance,
the one recipe for a common cake featured in the
book Early American Cookery read this way. Um, the flowers
should be dried before the fire, sifted and weighed, currants
washed and dried, raisins stoned, sugar pounded and rolled fine
(20:41):
and sifted, and all spices after being well dried at
the fire, pounded and sifted. So it was complicated basically,
just a lot, just a lot of steps and a
lot of steps to help create the fine texture and
to allow the ingredients to have some lift without the
chemical leveners that were used to today. Right, And that's
something we've talked about several times on this show. When
(21:03):
it comes to early desserts or our breads or grain
brace products in general, they were often dry or crumbly
or hard and not what we would think of today
when you think of a cake, for instance. Um, and
so if you wanted something lighter and fluffier, you had
to really plan ahead and put some serious elbow grease
into it too. Yeah, just just just really really whip
(21:25):
physically whip air into eggs or into cream or whatever
it is that you're doing. Yeah, yes, uh, And so
bakers were really determined to speed this process along, to
make it easier, and by the eighteenth century bakers were
already looking for simpler ways to get the rising effects
they wanted much more quickly. Uh and yeah, they were
beating air into eggs. They were using pearl ash or potash,
(21:47):
which we've discussed before. However, pearl ash was tricky, caustic
didn't have the best odor always yeah or never because
because as as part of the process it also it
does it will create carbon dioxide bubbles, but it also
gives off ammonia. Um, it's it's it's actually smelling salts
(22:07):
is what parlash is so um so so right, so
so ammonia is not generally what people are going for
as a flavor agent in their desserts, and so right
not not not ideal, no, no, no no. Um. The
game changed in this whole baking arena when baking soda
(22:28):
was introduced in and it definitely improved things, but still
it wasn't the most controllable process because it required adding
in an acid, most often the cheap and easily accessible
sour milk. But this wasn't the most predictable combination, primarily
because the cidity level of the milk varied UM, and
(22:50):
it impacted amounts that should be put in cooking times
things like that, in ways that were very very hard
to determine. UM. Also, in the eighteen forties we got
the first precursor to baking powder, courtesy of English chemist
Alfred Bird. So to make this product, Bird combined baking
(23:10):
soda with cream of tartar, which again yes, is an
acidic powder, essentially so so that the process could be
more controlled. However, there was still a problem at the time.
Cream of tartar was largely the byproduct of European wine
and further depended on the Great Harvest, meaning that outside
of Europe it had to be imported and was pretty
(23:31):
expensive and out of reach for folks like poor Americans
for instance. But again, a chemist solve this problem and
thoughts to fix it. In eighteen fifty six, even Norton Horshford,
who I hope I didn't but um filed a patent
for the first modern baking powder and later went on
to open the first modern US chemistry lab at Harvard UM. Yeah,
(23:55):
he did this all in part after falling in love
with the student of his being told he needed to
get better prospects by her father and traveling to Germany
to study chemistry. Yeah, that's the story anyway. A lot
of back and forth regarding baking powder followed, sometimes called
the Baking Powder Wars, but that is a future episode anyway.
(24:19):
Horsford's baking powder replaced the cream of tartar with calcium
acid phosphate. He filed for a patent that year for
the process of manufacturing it, so even if cream of
tartar wasn't involved, it was still a key force in
shaping the baking landscape. Sure, yeah, m hm, and another
(24:40):
key force. There's actually a whole book about this that
I really want to read. American women who saw cake
as an avenue for experimentation that wasn't necessarily obligation but
of pleasure, Like how can I make this lighter, fluffier, tastier,
Oh yeah, more special? Yeah. Eight seen nine three marks
(25:01):
the first time cream of tartar was advertised as an
egg white stabilizer as opposed to a baking powder type
substance or substitute, which is interesting. Tartaris Gonzalo Castello, which
is a company located in Spain that now processes about
of the world's cream of tartar got started in nineteen
(25:22):
o seven. A nine sixty one New York Times article
offered tips for the perfect meringue, one of which was
using cream of charter And Yeah, while modern day baking
powders don't often rely on cream of tartar anymore, the
legacy is still there, I guess, Like I keep trying
to make this point, but it's like the fingerprint of
cream of tartar is everywhere. Yeah, and it's still beloved
(25:46):
by many chefs and cooks and a lot of recipes.
So yeah, still going cream of tartar absolutely, absolutely, And
I yeah, I didn't know a lot of this before
we did this three ing and it's so cool. I'm like,
oh man, it is so I feel and I feel
like a little bit. I'm like, I'm like, um, part,
(26:09):
pardon me everyone who's ever taught me of a recipe? Like,
why did you not mention that I could avoid collapsing
my heck and eggs by putting a little cream tartar
in there? Oh? You you are doing that for hopefully
some listeners right now. You're sharing your knowledge, and I
(26:29):
would love to hear from listeners like what recipes do
you use cream of tartar. Yeah yeah, what are like
the ones that you busted out for You're like, this
is the important one. Here we go, yes, because it
is big during holiday baking time. I think every recipe
I have for cream of tartar is a holiday baking
type recipe. Yes, well, send those messages in, but for now,
(26:51):
I think that's what we have to say about cream
of tartar it is. We do have some listener mail
for you, though, and we're going to get into that
as soon as we get back from one more quick break.
Our word from our sponsors, and we're back thank you sponsored, Yes,
thank you, and we're back with yes, thank you. It
(27:25):
was like bubbles and holiday like lights. I don't know, okay, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah. I did want to mention we are working
on a listener mail episode. Um yeah, so if you've
been holding off for some reason, um, but you but
you really want you really want to mm hmm. This
(27:45):
is the this is the time. It's the time, it
is and when we have some exciting messages to share
and gifts that we have received that I can't wait
to talk about. Yes, yes, but in the meantime, let's
talk about hook but Kelly wrote, I was listening to
the Hot Chocolate episode and had to pass along a recommendation.
(28:06):
Still A Parks has a fantastic recipe for hot cocoa
mix on Serious Eats. It uses malt powder, a mix
of chocolate, and quote toasted sugar, one of her signature
ingredients to make a delicious homemade cocoa mix. You can
add a little mint extract two if that's your thing
and it makes a great homemade gift. You can wrap
it up in jars, bags, packets, et cetera, and decorate
it however you like. I hope you get a chance
(28:28):
to try it out, even if you make it mostly
to give away and just try a small sample. Oh
that's so cool goodness. I don't think I've ever used
a malt powder speaking of a future episode, right, Oh,
and I love I love a malt powder. Okay, It's
like my favorite milkshake flavor. Okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
(28:52):
totally um. Oh and seriously, it's always does great stuff.
They the writers and editors over there just doing a
bang up job. But continuing with the hot chocolate advice,
Stephanie wrote, I just listened to the Hot Chocolate episode
and I had to share my favorite hot chocolate topping.
Real marshmallows are great. Dehydrated mini marshmallows are great. Whipped
(29:12):
cream is great, but none of them hold a candle
to a scoop of marshmallow fluff. As a New England girl,
I do have a general affinity for fluff. But even
if you don't like it on a sandwich, you gotta
try it on hot chocolate. It melts into this gorgeous,
shiny white pool that covers the whole top of your mug,
so you get some in every sip. I can't recommend
it enough. Wow, this is one of those things. When
(29:35):
I read it, I was like, how have I never
thought of this? Right? So simple but so cool. Oh
and I do love marshmallow fluff. I the first day
that I had like a fluff nutter sandwich, I was like,
people can do this. This is within the realm of possibility.
Like I was like, whole what have I been missing
my entire life? Um? And it just makes sense, like right,
(29:56):
because a lot of times you put marshmallows, especially kind
of the cheaper kind of marshmallows, they don't really melt evenly.
It's like there's suddenly there there, and then suddenly it's
all gone. But if you had marshmallow fluff, I feel
like the consistency would would be better. I think that
the yeah and the it would be more even every
sip as you say, it makes sense, it makes sense.
(30:20):
It's so perfect. I feel like I found that. This
is like I've I've uncovered a deep mathematic formula. Like
that's what I feel like it's happened here. Yeah, yeah,
everything makes sense now. Yes, Well, thank you for as listeners,
(30:41):
Thanks for writing in, and if you would like to
write to as you can or email is hello at
saborpod dot com. We're also on social media. You can
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saber pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Saber is
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(31:02):
Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeart Radio. I'm
Any and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an
episode for you about cream of Tartar, Yes, Yes, which
has been on our list since the very very beginning.
Uh yeah, And it's really scientifically and historically, not like complicated,
(00:32):
but complex, like there's a lot there's a lot of
moving pieces in this one and so um, so we've
been putting it off, but um but this is like
sort of we were asked to do a holiday episode
and this was the topic that we chose because we
were weird nerds. We were we weren't like, oh man,
(00:52):
let's do gingerbread cookies, although I mean we have already
done gingerbread, so we couldn't. But but at any rate, yeah,
like we didn't do something like that, Like we were like, oh,
let's talk about cream of tartar, very important into baking
it is. Yeah, And so this gout kicks started because
super producer Andrew was like, hey, have you heard about
(01:12):
cream of charge? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah that too, right right.
It was this dovetail yes, and I was like, been
on my list since forever because every time I tell
somebody what cream of tartar is? That same moment happens
where they're like, are you kidding? Now? I would never
joke about wine residue. That's a really useful kitchen chemical.
(01:35):
I would never um. But I believe I've told this
story several times on the show, and I'll tell it again.
I was in college when I realized baking powder and
baking soda were not interchangeable things. And a good friend
of mine, who I would say had her life more
together than I did, told me about well, you know,
(01:58):
cream of tartar, which she told me and we're going
to talk about this, but she told me it was
a difference between them as one has cream of tartar
and one doesn't. And I was like, we was a
cream of tartar. Oh no, my whole life is a lie.
But it was a very big learning experience for me.
So I think one of the first topics I put
on our list was baking powder, baking soda, cream tartar. Yeah,
(02:25):
I'm It's something that I was fairly familiar with from
a fairly young age because my grandmama lou um Uh,
taught me to to to bake when I was growing
up and things like snickerdoodles. Not a lot of baking
recipes still call for cream of tartar specifically, Like a
(02:45):
lot of the time, baking powder is the thing that's
used as a leavener. But uh and and cream of
tartar isn't usually involved in baking powder anymore. We're talking
more about all of this, uh and throughout the outline.
But um, but but yeah, but in snickerdoodles specifically, uh,
cream of tartar is usually in the ingredients list. And
(03:06):
so yeah, so I've kind of always had it in
my life, but only pretty recently learned about it, I
think when we did our Muffins episode. Yep um. This
episode is also super fun because of just the breadth
of different other episodes we get to refer to in it. Yes,
(03:31):
I was trying to phrase it to Lauren earlier, but
it's kind of an episode that tells the story of
so many other things through its not being there or
being there but being the side character. Yeah, it's fascinating. Yeah,
oh yeah, cream of charter. I guess this brings us
(03:53):
to our question, cream of tartar? What is it? Well,
a cream of tartar is a compound that has all
kinds of useful properties in cooking because it's basically just
a mild acid that comes in a powdered crystal format. Um.
(04:15):
It's a white powder found in little canisters and either
the spicyle sometimes the baking aisle of stores. It shows
up in recipes for baked goods and desserts and other
things that incorporate a whipped cream or whipped eggs. Also
in candies and in boiled vegetables and in cleaning products. UM.
It's like lemon juice or vinegar in powder form, but
(04:39):
without other flavors involved. It's like a it's like a
food grade multitool or or I guess to your point
a minute ago, it's like a. It's like a really
good character actor that you kind of almost don't notice
until you realize that they're so critical. Yes one THO
(05:00):
exactly love it. Um. The chemical name is potassium by
tartrate um or potassium hydrogen tartrate so um. SO. It's
the potassium salt form of an acid called tartaric acid,
which is a carbacilic acid which are commonly occurring at
(05:21):
typically weak acids and uh creep of tartar is actually
a byproduct of the wine industry. M okay, so Twotaric
acid is a compound that's found in grapes. Um. It's
one of the things that makes them tart. When it
is partially neutralized, like like on the pH scale, UM,
(05:41):
it can form up with potassium, which is also found
in grapes, to create molecules of potassium by tartrate. And
these are pretty soluble in warm water based solutions, but
will crystallize and settle out of the solution at cooler
temperatures like UM, like below twenty celsius or seventy fahrenheit UM,
and especially below like ten celsius or fifty fahrenheit, which
(06:04):
hey is totally cellar temperature to like cold cellar temperature
all right. In the wine industry, um these uh, these,
these crystals are sometimes called wine crystals or wine diamonds. Um.
You may have noticed them yourself at the bottom of
a bottle of wine or um like in a crunchy
little layer on the bottom of the cork when you
(06:25):
open it. Yeah. Um. They're harmless in wine and like
not an indicator that anything has gone bad. Some wine
experts actually like seeing them because it's a sign that
a wine hasn't been like processed too much. Uh. But
that's not how it's manufactured. Like, no one is like
filtering finished bottles of wine or like scraping them off
of corks um and then sending them into some kind
(06:46):
of that's not that's not what's going on. UM. So
when you make wine, UM, you let the juice or
must ferment and sometimes age in a vat or barrel
with yeast. Then you separate the liquid wine from the
LEAs the like the dead yeast in any sediments by
straining or draining as you bottle it. Usually um. You
(07:08):
can see our Champagne episode for more on that UM.
And I know, right, serious throwback um. And so what
you're left with is those leaves, some some dead yeast,
and other sediments probably including like sort of a bunch
of potassium by tar trade um, that can then be
(07:29):
washed out and sent off and purified and powdered and sold. Um.
The raw stuff that's sent off is sometimes called our
goal by the way. Okay, yeah I didn't read about
why I didn't look into that, but okay, so so
so potassium by tar trade or cream of tartar Um
(07:49):
is just incredibly useful because it is mildly acidic and
it doesn't have other flavors, and it's a dry powder,
so you don't have water molecules in there like mucking
anything up. Um. So yeah, let's go. This is like
a long list of uses. Um, it's amazing. Uh Okay.
(08:11):
One that we've talked about on the show before, and
as we alluded to in our intro um uh during
our discussion on muffins um, is that it is a
part of leaveners for baked goods. Leaveners are the stuff
that you add to help make to bake goods nice
and light and fluffy. Generally, these are compounds that will
create carbon dioxide bubbles in your dough, giving it a
(08:34):
physical lift and expansion um, and then that the heat
of your oven sets the dough around those bubbles, nice,
light and airy um. The most popular leavener modern lye
is baking powder, which is made up of baking soda,
which is sodium bicarbonate um plus some kind of dry
form of acid, and when this mixture is subjected to moisture,
(08:56):
the two will react with each other to produce carbon dioxide. Bubbles. Um. Originally,
cream of tartar was the acid used in baking powder.
These days it's more likely to be something cheaper UM,
but recipes will still sometimes call for um cream of
tartar plus baking soda, or maybe for baking powder plus
an extra kick a cream of tartar, depending on what
people are going for, and that is partially because of
(09:20):
cream of tartars other cool properties UM like, for example,
if you are whipping egg whites or cream um, the
acidity of cream of tartar what will help the proteins
in there unfurl and then stick together softly around the
air bubbles that you're whipping in without without sticking together
so hard that they go rigid and then push water out.
(09:43):
You might have had that happen to you when when
you're whipping eggs or cream um. You know it's expanding
and peeking up nicely, and then suddenly it breaks and
goes lumpy and wet. UM. A little bit of cream
tartar can help prevent that. Cream of tartar can also
make cakes and meringues look brighter and wider UM because well,
(10:05):
we'll a because the acidity and it will turn a
pigment in flour clear instead of sort of parchment colored
UM and b because of that whipping thing. Because you
can you can get the air bubbles in a batter
or in a meringue smaller UM, which means that the
particles of cake or meringue around them are going to
be smaller, which means that they reflect light just a
(10:25):
little differently and it looks brighter. That's so cool, I know.
Um okay. But furthermore, um, cream of tartar affects the
texture of sugar. UM. Sugar meaning sucros um likes being
in a crystal state and it likes clumping up. Um.
(10:48):
But if you're making like a like a smooth textured
candy or a shiny icing or like nice chewy baked goods,
you want sugar to be liquid or at the very
least like not clumpy. UM. Cream of tartar helps because
it breaks sucros down into glucose and fructose, which do
not like crystallizing and clumping up as much. And because
(11:14):
cream of tartar is lightly acidic, it can help some
kinds of colorful produce retain their color when you steam
or boil them. UM. Basically because in certain vegs that
those pigments are stored in acidic pockets. Um. So making
the whole environment that you're cooking them in more acidic
(11:36):
means that they can stay put and they're not trying
to balance out with the rest of the stuff, with
the rest of the water or whatever. Um. Also it's
great for cleaning, um, for cleaning the blackening off of
like aluminum and other metals, and for lifting rust um
and helping clear drains when when mixed with different stuff.
(12:00):
Google the cleaning uses. This is ostensibly a food show. Um.
And I've I've already talked a lot, so yeah, yeah,
well you must continue, lareen. We need to know about
the nutrition. You're generally not consuming enough cream of tartar
to make a difference. Um. And if you're thinking about
(12:20):
doing so, don't because potassium is one of the things
that like your body needs, but that you also should
not have too much of. So yeah, yeah, generally considered safe.
But but don't just eat cream of tartar. That's not
what it's for. No. Uh no. I did think it
was really interesting in reading this how many chefs had
(12:43):
such strong opinions about why you should be using a
cream of tartar because it has kind of you know,
we couldn't really find a lot of numbers, but I
would say based on these articles I read from chefs,
they were they were making the case like this is
the ingredients you need to use it, but he's using yeah. Yeah, yeah.
It's got a rep for being like a little bit
old fashioned. UM. However, okay, so so I don't have
(13:07):
firm numbers about it, but all of the like market
reports that I didn't spend thousands of dollars on UM,
the summaries we're we're indicating that it's still quite a
popular product, especially on an industrial level, and that furthermore,
um its use is growing as the growth of baked
goods in places that are not Europe and North America continues. Yes, yes,
(13:33):
it was interesting how many things were like you can't
substitute cream of tartar in this, Like sneaker doodles was
the big point it kept. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but
because um, um, if you've ever had like a really
good sneaker doodle, like it's got like a tiny bit
of tartness to it, and that's that's what that is. Yeah, yeah,
so cool. Well, yeah, we don't really have any numbers
(13:53):
other than these kind of vague understandings. But I did
see this thing. Cream of charter was huge in terms
of revolutionizing modern baking, which we're going to talk about,
but also in our understanding of three D molecular structures. Yeah, yeah,
and uh, there will be more on that in the
(14:13):
history section. But first we are going to get into
a quick break for word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. And you can see
our many wine episodes we've done. As you said, Lauren,
(14:37):
there's also a bunch of other things that this one
touches on. I would say wine episodes pretty big for sure. Yeah,
and the history of this one is a little all
over the place, um, as we also mentioned, but here
we go. We're gonna try. So. The earliest known evidence
(14:58):
of cream of tartar was a residue you discovered on
seven thousand year old wine barrels located in what is
now Iran. But it's safe to guess that as long
as we've been making wine, this waste product of wine
making has been around. Um. But yeah, for much of history,
cream of tartar was pretty much seen. It's just that
a waste product, and it was ignored. People weren't writing
(15:19):
about it, they weren't studying it, didn't care about it. Um.
It wasn't until the fourteenth century that the word tartar
appeared on our written record in terms of the wine
deposits we're talking about today, deriving from the tutark in
tutark acid. I've always been I've always struggled with that pronunciation,
but I hope that's right. The cream part, and cream
(15:40):
of tartar is still a bit of a mystery. Everybody
was like the closest thing I read was people think
it's because of the color, yeah, or like it makes
things textually creamy. I don't. I don't know. Um. Although
one more slightly mysterious atomalogy note here um The crystals
(16:01):
harvested from wine barrels or or bottles were at one
point known by the noun bees wing because they're so
like delicate and clear. I love that beautiful. I'm not
sure if it was during this time period or later on,
but at any rate, bees wing beast being it is fantastic.
(16:24):
Some evidence suggests that cream of tartar, at least some
form of it, was possibly fairly available in medieval Europe.
Um Chaucer may have mentioned cream of tartar in the
Canterbury Tales. Here's the translation of that clay made with
horse or man's hair and oil of tartar crystallized alum
yeast unfermented malt, and our goal. M Yeah, Chaucer was
(16:51):
was writing about some like shady alchemists during this bit. Um.
I'm not sure where the tartar and our goal came
into play in the whole thing. I'm I'm unfamiliar with Chaucer.
If anyone is more familiar, I let us know. Yeah, yeah, um.
(17:11):
A seventeen sixty six treatise purported that tar treats were
useful in a whole host of medicinal applications, including gout
and including which there's an illustration you can look upon
in the case of a bite of a quote. Prodigious
mad cat. Oh, prodigious mad cat. I mean that's prodigious.
(17:37):
I feel like that's most cats I've ever met. But
I know that's like, that's like does anyone does anyone
else follow Billy the cat who has the sound buttons
and like and like their owner made one that's just
as mad and like and so this cat will sometimes
sit there and just mad mad mad mad mad mad
madman Like that's a move. That's a mood right there
(18:05):
anyway anyway, uh, cream of chartar was frequently used as
a laxative during this time as well. Um. When it
comes to our modern use of cream of tartar, it
is a tale of a lot of scientists and chemists
and Baker's um. One such person was Swedish chemist C. W.
Shiel Uh in seventeen sixty eight, and basically he combined
(18:29):
the leftover solids from making wine with hot water to
dissolve the potassium by tart trait. Then the water evaporated
out and allowed for these crystals are wine diamonds to form,
and from there they were purified, packaged and sold. Still
the basic way that we're doing it, yep, yep. French
physicist Jean Baptiste Pio nailed down cream of tartar's physical
(18:51):
properties in eighteen thirty two, and then Louis Pasteur. Louis
Pasteur grew really interested in wine making and started studying
the compound left behind by why making. In Yeah, as
we talked about in our Types of Milk episode of
of all references. He was hired by a winement manufacturer
(19:14):
and then later Napoleon the Third to look into y
wines sometimes go sour. The answer is bacteria, and that's
why we have pasteurization today. But right, so he was
studying wine and um and this goes back to that
three D molecule thing um because al right, he was
studying one and noticed that lab created tutaric acid behaves
(19:35):
a little bit differently than natural tutaric acid when it
crystallizes into salt forms um like, it produces differently shaped crystals.
And so between this work and a couple other chemists
work around this time, we figured out that molecules are
in fact three dimensional, not not two dimensional as it
(19:55):
was previously kind of assumed. M hm. I'm telling you
it's so cool. You never know where their research is
gonna go. Right, And not long after this cream of
tartar became a popular ingredient in French cooking, and it
really really did change the world of baking um, as
did a lot of innovations and ingredients, processes and technologies
(20:18):
coming out around this time. Because it's like Industrial Revolution time,
so a lot of things were happening and So, for instance,
the one recipe for a common cake featured in the
book Early American Cookery read this way. Um, the flowers
should be dried before the fire, sifted and weighed, currants
washed and dried, raisins stoned, sugar pounded and rolled fine
(20:41):
and sifted, and all spices after being well dried at
the fire, pounded and sifted. So it was complicated basically,
just a lot, just a lot of steps and a
lot of steps to help create the fine texture and
to allow the ingredients to have some lift without the
chemical leveners that were used to today. Right, And that's
something we've talked about several times on this show. When
(21:03):
it comes to early desserts or our breads or grain
brace products in general, they were often dry or crumbly
or hard and not what we would think of today
when you think of a cake, for instance. Um, and
so if you wanted something lighter and fluffier, you had
to really plan ahead and put some serious elbow grease
into it too. Yeah, just just just really really whip
(21:25):
physically whip air into eggs or into cream or whatever
it is that you're doing. Yeah, yes, uh, And so
bakers were really determined to speed this process along, to
make it easier, and by the eighteenth century bakers were
already looking for simpler ways to get the rising effects
they wanted much more quickly. Uh and yeah, they were
beating air into eggs. They were using pearl ash or potash,
(21:47):
which we've discussed before. However, pearl ash was tricky, caustic
didn't have the best odor always yeah or never because
because as as part of the process it also it
does it will create carbon dioxide bubbles, but it also
gives off ammonia. Um, it's it's it's actually smelling salts
(22:07):
is what parlash is so um so so right, so
so ammonia is not generally what people are going for
as a flavor agent in their desserts, and so right
not not not ideal, no, no, no no. Um. The
game changed in this whole baking arena when baking soda
(22:28):
was introduced in and it definitely improved things, but still
it wasn't the most controllable process because it required adding
in an acid, most often the cheap and easily accessible
sour milk. But this wasn't the most predictable combination, primarily
because the cidity level of the milk varied UM, and
(22:50):
it impacted amounts that should be put in cooking times
things like that, in ways that were very very hard
to determine. UM. Also, in the eighteen forties we got
the first precursor to baking powder, courtesy of English chemist
Alfred Bird. So to make this product, Bird combined baking
(23:10):
soda with cream of tartar, which again yes, is an
acidic powder, essentially so so that the process could be
more controlled. However, there was still a problem at the time.
Cream of tartar was largely the byproduct of European wine
and further depended on the Great Harvest, meaning that outside
of Europe it had to be imported and was pretty
(23:31):
expensive and out of reach for folks like poor Americans
for instance. But again, a chemist solve this problem and
thoughts to fix it. In eighteen fifty six, even Norton Horshford,
who I hope I didn't but um filed a patent
for the first modern baking powder and later went on
to open the first modern US chemistry lab at Harvard UM. Yeah,
(23:55):
he did this all in part after falling in love
with the student of his being told he needed to
get better prospects by her father and traveling to Germany
to study chemistry. Yeah, that's the story anyway. A lot
of back and forth regarding baking powder followed, sometimes called
the Baking Powder Wars, but that is a future episode anyway.
(24:19):
Horsford's baking powder replaced the cream of tartar with calcium
acid phosphate. He filed for a patent that year for
the process of manufacturing it, so even if cream of
tartar wasn't involved, it was still a key force in
shaping the baking landscape. Sure, yeah, m hm, and another
(24:40):
key force. There's actually a whole book about this that
I really want to read. American women who saw cake
as an avenue for experimentation that wasn't necessarily obligation but
of pleasure, Like how can I make this lighter, fluffier, tastier,
Oh yeah, more special? Yeah. Eight seen nine three marks
(25:01):
the first time cream of tartar was advertised as an
egg white stabilizer as opposed to a baking powder type
substance or substitute, which is interesting. Tartaris Gonzalo Castello, which
is a company located in Spain that now processes about
of the world's cream of tartar got started in nineteen
(25:22):
o seven. A nine sixty one New York Times article
offered tips for the perfect meringue, one of which was
using cream of charter And Yeah, while modern day baking
powders don't often rely on cream of tartar anymore, the
legacy is still there, I guess, Like I keep trying
to make this point, but it's like the fingerprint of
cream of tartar is everywhere. Yeah, and it's still beloved
(25:46):
by many chefs and cooks and a lot of recipes.
So yeah, still going cream of tartar absolutely, absolutely, And
I yeah, I didn't know a lot of this before
we did this three ing and it's so cool. I'm like,
oh man, it is so I feel and I feel
like a little bit. I'm like, I'm like, um, part,
(26:09):
pardon me everyone who's ever taught me of a recipe? Like,
why did you not mention that I could avoid collapsing
my heck and eggs by putting a little cream tartar
in there? Oh? You you are doing that for hopefully
some listeners right now. You're sharing your knowledge, and I
(26:29):
would love to hear from listeners like what recipes do
you use cream of tartar. Yeah yeah, what are like
the ones that you busted out for You're like, this
is the important one. Here we go, yes, because it
is big during holiday baking time. I think every recipe
I have for cream of tartar is a holiday baking
type recipe. Yes, well, send those messages in, but for now,
(26:51):
I think that's what we have to say about cream
of tartar it is. We do have some listener mail
for you, though, and we're going to get into that
as soon as we get back from one more quick break.
Our word from our sponsors, and we're back thank you sponsored, Yes,
thank you, and we're back with yes, thank you. It
(27:25):
was like bubbles and holiday like lights. I don't know, okay, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah. I did want to mention we are working
on a listener mail episode. Um yeah, so if you've
been holding off for some reason, um, but you but
you really want you really want to mm hmm. This
(27:45):
is the this is the time. It's the time, it
is and when we have some exciting messages to share
and gifts that we have received that I can't wait
to talk about. Yes, yes, but in the meantime, let's
talk about hook but Kelly wrote, I was listening to
the Hot Chocolate episode and had to pass along a recommendation.
(28:06):
Still A Parks has a fantastic recipe for hot cocoa
mix on Serious Eats. It uses malt powder, a mix
of chocolate, and quote toasted sugar, one of her signature
ingredients to make a delicious homemade cocoa mix. You can
add a little mint extract two if that's your thing
and it makes a great homemade gift. You can wrap
it up in jars, bags, packets, et cetera, and decorate
it however you like. I hope you get a chance
(28:28):
to try it out, even if you make it mostly
to give away and just try a small sample. Oh
that's so cool goodness. I don't think I've ever used
a malt powder speaking of a future episode, right, Oh,
and I love I love a malt powder. Okay, It's
like my favorite milkshake flavor. Okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
(28:52):
totally um. Oh and seriously, it's always does great stuff.
They the writers and editors over there just doing a
bang up job. But continuing with the hot chocolate advice,
Stephanie wrote, I just listened to the Hot Chocolate episode
and I had to share my favorite hot chocolate topping.
Real marshmallows are great. Dehydrated mini marshmallows are great. Whipped
(29:12):
cream is great, but none of them hold a candle
to a scoop of marshmallow fluff. As a New England girl,
I do have a general affinity for fluff. But even
if you don't like it on a sandwich, you gotta
try it on hot chocolate. It melts into this gorgeous,
shiny white pool that covers the whole top of your mug,
so you get some in every sip. I can't recommend
it enough. Wow, this is one of those things. When
(29:35):
I read it, I was like, how have I never
thought of this? Right? So simple but so cool. Oh
and I do love marshmallow fluff. I the first day
that I had like a fluff nutter sandwich, I was like,
people can do this. This is within the realm of possibility.
Like I was like, whole what have I been missing
my entire life? Um? And it just makes sense, like right,
(29:56):
because a lot of times you put marshmallows, especially kind
of the cheaper kind of marshmallows, they don't really melt evenly.
It's like there's suddenly there there, and then suddenly it's
all gone. But if you had marshmallow fluff, I feel
like the consistency would would be better. I think that
the yeah and the it would be more even every
sip as you say, it makes sense, it makes sense.
(30:20):
It's so perfect. I feel like I found that. This
is like I've I've uncovered a deep mathematic formula. Like
that's what I feel like it's happened here. Yeah, yeah,
everything makes sense now. Yes, Well, thank you for as listeners,
(30:41):
Thanks for writing in, and if you would like to
write to as you can or email is hello at
saborpod dot com. We're also on social media. You can
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saber pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Saber is
a production of I Heart Radio four more podcasts from
my Heart Radio. You can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Pie Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(31:02):
Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
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