Thursday, April 4, 2013

Cream of Tartar

I've decided to challenge myself to post on my blog everyday. As the day started I struggled to think of a topic. Today was my day off so I knew I wouldn't have any work stories and nothing really exciting happens outside of work so I was really drawing a blank on what I could write about. I was talking to a friend and telling her about my new blog and she was excited to know that I would be incorporating baking and decorating ideas, she then asked me what cream of tarter is used for in baking. Then the idea hit, I had absolutely no idea what cream of tartar is used for in baking. All I knew was it has a weird name, you only use a pinch at a time, its in a bottle that is too big and no one ever uses all of it and its kinda expensive to buy. So I began my research on uses for cream of tartar.

According to Wikipedia the actual name is Potassium bitartrate also know as potassium hydrogen tartrate, which is used for use in wine making but when cooking is know as cream of tartar. The use of this ingredient serves several purposes. First it is used to stabilize egg whites and increase the heat tolerance and volume. Second is to stabilize whipped cream by helping to maintain the texture and volume. Next it prevents sugar and syrup from crystallizing while being baked. Lastly it prevents discoloration when boiling vegetables. 

So hopefully everyone learned something and next time a recipe calls for cream of tartar you'll know exactly what it does!

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