What is the difference between tartar sauce and cream of tartar

Asked 6 years, 4 months ago. Active 2 years, 5 months ago. Viewed 47k times. Improve this question. The Chef The Chef 1 1 gold badge 1 1 silver badge 3 3 bronze badges. Most excellent error! Tartar sauce belongs on fish sticks. Cream of tartar in egg whites you plan to whip. WayfaringStranger Is meringue not supposed to have little green lumps in it, then? Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. The two items are completely different and cannot be substituted one for the other.

Improve this answer. Like JavaScript and Java. No wait, wrong stackexchange Javascript and Java are at least both programming languages; Cream of Tartar and Tartar sauce aren't even in the same category of things.

Sure, crystals are pretty, but unless you're making rock candy, they're usually something best kept out of the kitchen. A little cream of tartar added to your frostings, icings, or syrups can prevent the sugar from crystallizing, with the result that your frostings will be fluffier and your syrups smoother.

If you do not have cream of tartar on hand, you can easily leave it out of any sugar-based recipe that calls for it, since the taste won't be affected. In the case of a syrup that crystallizes, all you'd need to do would be to reheat it to melt the crystallized sugar. If it's an icing that crystallizes — well, just enjoy the extra crunch. While some baking ingredients, such as baking powder, do have expiration dates , cream of tartar really doesn't ever expire. As long as you've kept your cream of tartar in an airtight container so as to keep out any moisture, creepy-crawlies, or eww rodent infestations, it should last approximately forever.

If you're just not sure of the age or provenance of that ancient tin of cream of tartar you maybe inherited from grandma, though, there are certain steps you can take to make absolutely sure it's still good. First of all, check how it looks and smells. It should look like white powder, no dark flecks we don't even want to speculate what those might be , not all fused into a solid lump, and with no mold or other ickiness growing on the surface.

It should also have not much of an odor, at all. Tartar sauce is mayonnaise with chopped pickles, olives, chives, capers, and such mixed in. It is traditionally served with fried fish. It comes to us via old Latin from the Arabic durd, meaning the dregs or sediment that form in a cask of fermenting wine.

Chemically, it is impure potassium hydrogen tartrate aka potassium bitartrate or potassium acid tartrate , a salt of tartaric acid. The tartar that forms in wine casks comes from the tartaric acid present in grape juice. Tartaric acid is what gives wine about half of its total acidity.