WEBVTT - How Does Cream of Tartar Work in Baked Goods and Beyond?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Volebaum Here with the holiday season upon us, I

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to talk about a common but slightly mysterious baking ingredient,

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<v Speaker 1>cream of tartar. Despite its name, it isn't creamy. It's

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<v Speaker 1>not made of dairy at all. It's also not used

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<v Speaker 1>in tartar sauce. It's actually a byproduct of the wine industry.

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<v Speaker 1>But we'll get into that later, okay. Cream of tartar

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<v Speaker 1>is a dry, mildly acidic powder most commonly used in baking,

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<v Speaker 1>but also in candy making, cleaning products, and other kitchen

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<v Speaker 1>jobs like whipping up fluffy eggs. It's like having lemon

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<v Speaker 1>juice or vinegar in a powder format, but it's flavorless.

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<v Speaker 1>In baked goods, cream of tartar is employed as part

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<v Speaker 1>of chemical leavening agents. Leaveners are the stuff you add

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<v Speaker 1>to help make baked goods nice and light and fluffy.

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<v Speaker 1>In general. These are compounds that will create carbon dioxide

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<v Speaker 1>bubbles in your dough and giving it a physical lift

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<v Speaker 1>and expansion. Then the heat of the oven sets the

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<v Speaker 1>dough around those bubbles. This is what's happening in yeast

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<v Speaker 1>phrased dough. The yeasts are microorganisms that produce carbon dioxide,

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<v Speaker 1>but sometimes you don't want to muck around with yeast

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<v Speaker 1>because it takes a couple hours to work, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>where chemical leveners come in. Modern chemical leveners are made

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<v Speaker 1>by combining baking soda aka sodium bicarbonate with an acid

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<v Speaker 1>and then getting them wet. That's because when baking soda

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<v Speaker 1>interacts with an acid and a moisture, a chemical reaction

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<v Speaker 1>occurs that instantly forms carbon dioxide bubbles. When manufactures package

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<v Speaker 1>baking soda with a dry acid light cream of tartar,

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<v Speaker 1>it makes it super easy for the user just add water.

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<v Speaker 1>This is what's going on in those fizzy bath bombs

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<v Speaker 1>you may have used, and also in baking powder. Cream

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<v Speaker 1>of tartar is a little bit on the expensive side,

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<v Speaker 1>so these days, a cheaper dry acid is probably at

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<v Speaker 1>work in your back bombs and baking powder. But baking

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<v Speaker 1>recipes do sometimes still call for baking soda and cream

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<v Speaker 1>of tartar, or for baking powder and an extra kick

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<v Speaker 1>from cream of tartar. But wait, there's more. Cream of

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<v Speaker 1>tartar can also help stabilize whipped eggs or whipped cream.

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<v Speaker 1>Its acidity helps the proteins in the egg whites or

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<v Speaker 1>in the cream unfurl and then stick together softly around

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<v Speaker 1>air bubbles without sticking so hard that they go rigid

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<v Speaker 1>and push water out. You may have had that happen

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<v Speaker 1>when you're whipping eggs or cream. You know it'll be

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<v Speaker 1>expanding and peeking up nicely, but then suddenly it'll break

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<v Speaker 1>and go lumpy and wet. A little bit of cream

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<v Speaker 1>of tartar can help prevent that. It also makes cakes

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<v Speaker 1>and meringues look brighter or wider because of two things.

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<v Speaker 1>First of all, it's acidity makes this pigment and flour

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<v Speaker 1>that's normally sort of parchment colored turn clear. And secondly,

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<v Speaker 1>because of that whipping thing, you can get the air

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<v Speaker 1>bubbles in a batter or a meringue smaller, which means

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<v Speaker 1>the particles of cake or meringue are smaller, which means

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<v Speaker 1>that they reflect light just a little bit differently. And furthermore,

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<v Speaker 1>cream of tartar affects the texture of sugar. A sugar

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<v Speaker 1>meaning sucrose likes being in a crystal state and it

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<v Speaker 1>likes clumping up. But when you're making smooth textured candies

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<v Speaker 1>like a caramel or lollipops or shiny icings or nice

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<v Speaker 1>chewy baked goods. You want your sugar to be liquid

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<v Speaker 1>or at the very least like not clumpy. Cream of

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<v Speaker 1>tartar helps because it breaks sucrose down into its components

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<v Speaker 1>glucose and fruititose, which don't crystallize and clump as much.

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<v Speaker 1>And because cream of tartar is lightly acidic, can help

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<v Speaker 1>some kinds of colorful produce retain their color when you

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<v Speaker 1>steam or boil them, basically because those pigments are stored

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<v Speaker 1>in acidic pockets in the produce, so making the whole

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<v Speaker 1>environment morcidic means they get to stay put. A cream

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<v Speaker 1>of tartar is also great for household tasks like cleaning

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<v Speaker 1>the blackening off of aluminum in other metals, or for

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<v Speaker 1>lifting rest and for helping clear drains. But I mentioned

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<v Speaker 1>the wine industry, so let's talk about where cream of

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<v Speaker 1>tartar comes from. A chemical name potassium by tartrate or

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<v Speaker 1>potassium hydrogen tartrate. Cream of tartar is the potassium salt

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<v Speaker 1>form of this acid called tatark acid, which is a

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<v Speaker 1>carboxylic acid which are commonly occurring and typically weak forms

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<v Speaker 1>of acid. Tataric acid is where we get the name

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<v Speaker 1>tartar in cream of tartar. Why cream was added to

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<v Speaker 1>the name is anyone's gas. Tataric acid is a compound

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<v Speaker 1>found in grapes. It's one of the things that makes

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<v Speaker 1>them tart. When this acid is partially neutralized, like on

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<v Speaker 1>the pH scale, it can form up with potassium, which

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<v Speaker 1>is also found in grapes, to create molecules of potassium

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<v Speaker 1>by tartrate. These are pretty soluble in warm water based solutions,

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<v Speaker 1>but will crystallize and settle out of the solution at

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<v Speaker 1>cooler temperatures, especially below about ten degrees celsius or fifty fahrenheit,

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<v Speaker 1>which hey is totally the temperature of the cold cellars

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<v Speaker 1>where wine is stored. In the wine industry, these are

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes called wine crystals or wine diamonds. You may have

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<v Speaker 1>noticed them yourself at the bottom of a bottle of

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<v Speaker 1>wine or in a crunchy little layer on the bottom

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<v Speaker 1>of the cork. They're harmless and not an indicator that

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<v Speaker 1>anything is bad about the wine, and some wine experts

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<v Speaker 1>actually like seeing them as it's a sign that a

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<v Speaker 1>wine hasn't been too heavily processed, but okay, cream of

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<v Speaker 1>tartar is not manufactured by filtering bottles of finished wine

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<v Speaker 1>or scraping crystals off of quarks. It's made by processing

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<v Speaker 1>wine waste, okay, very Basically, when you make wine, you

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<v Speaker 1>let grape juice ferment in a vat or barrel with yeast.

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<v Speaker 1>Then you separate the wine from the lees that is,

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<v Speaker 1>the dead yeast and other sediments by straining or draining.

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<v Speaker 1>As you bottle it. You're left with, yes, a dead yeast,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe some grape solids, and probably sort of a bunch

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<v Speaker 1>of potassium by tartrate that's then washed out and sent

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<v Speaker 1>off and purified and powdered and sold as cream of tartar.

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<v Speaker 1>This production process dates back to seventeen sixty eight and

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<v Speaker 1>Swedish chemist C. W. Shield. Throughout the eighteen hundreds, other

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<v Speaker 1>scientists studied the compound's physical properties, including Louis Pastor, who

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<v Speaker 1>basically invented pasteurization. One of the discoveries that came out

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<v Speaker 1>of this work with cream of tartar is the molecules

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<v Speaker 1>are in fact three dimensional, not two dimensional as was

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<v Speaker 1>thought at the time. Cream of tartar soon became a

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<v Speaker 1>popular ingredient in French cooking and spread from there to

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<v Speaker 1>change the world of baking, along with a few other ingredients, processes,

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<v Speaker 1>and technologies that were being developed around this time, such

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<v Speaker 1>as baking soda, modern ovens, and egg beaters that didn't

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<v Speaker 1>rely solely on arm power, but all of those are

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<v Speaker 1>topics for other episodes. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article Cream of Tartar is a Baker's Best Friend on

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<v Speaker 1>HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more

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