Cream of tartar

Crème de tartre

What it is

Potassium bitartrate is scraped off the inside of wine barrels, where it crystallises out of the wine as a hard pink or grey crust the trade calls argol. It is the only thing in the baking cupboard that begins life as sediment.

In the kitchen

An eighth of a teaspoon per egg white, added once the whites are foamy and never before, gives a meringue that holds overnight without weeping. A quarter-teaspoon per 200 g of boiled sugar inverts enough syrup to keep crystals off the pan wall.

Goes with

Egg White sugar Icing sugar Glucose syrup Sodium bicarbonate Lemon Vanilla

Same species

Saltpetre

Also used with

Tartaric acid Egg white powder (albumin) Natural cocoa powder

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