Cream of Tartar

Cream of tartar is an acid salt, potassium hydrogenate tartrate (K C4 H5 O6), that...

Use cream of tartar to make meringue or in beating egg whites for other reasons, especially for mousse au chocolat. It helps protect the whites while heating to 145° greatly reducing any potential harm from uncooked egg in the recipe. Add the cream of tartar about halfway through the beating process to ensure that the volume increase gets started first.