Article: Sometimes it's possible to skip the cream of tartar.(TASTE)

A telephone caller the other day wanted to know whether she could leave the cream of tartar out of a recipe, and, if not, what she could substitute.

The answer depends on which of its three quite different possible functions the cream of tartar serves in the recipe.

It can stabilize beaten egg whites, it can impede crystallization in candymaking and it can activate baking soda.

Back to all that in a moment, but first: What the heck is cream of tartar? Many cooks might be able to say it's a white powder sold with the spices, and it's apparently some kind of chemical that you don't use very much of, but few could go much beyond that. Here's the ...

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