Cream of tartar substitutes
Cream of tartar substitutes — 7 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Also called creme of tartar, potassium bitartrate, potassium hydrogen tartrate, tartar powder
Use Lemon juice
½ tsp for every 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
It depends which of its three jobs you need. Stabilizing egg whites for meringue: use ½ tsp lemon juice or white vinegar per 1/8 tsp cream of tartar, which is per egg white. Leavening, as in snickerdoodles or homemade baking powder: use 1 tsp baking powder in place of ¼ tsp baking soda plus ½ tsp cream of tartar, and remove the soda. Stopping candy from going grainy: use 1 tbsp light corn syrup per cup of sugar.
- Verdict —
- Tweak it
- The tweak —
- Add it once the whites have gone foamy and opaque, not into the clear raw whites, and carry on whipping
- Best for —
- meringue, pavlova and macarons where a faint citrus note is welcome
- Pantry —
- Likely in your cupboard
Checked 22 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
But first: what’s the cream of tartar doing?
Pick your caseWhich of the three jobs is the recipe asking for — egg whites, leavening, or a sugar syrup?
You need acidity and nothing else, so a liquid acid works fine. Use ½ tsp lemon juice or white vinegar per 1/8 tsp of cream of tartar, which is the usual dose per egg white, and add it once the whites are foamy rather than at the very start.
Notes on lemon juice or white vinegar
½ tsp per 1/8 tsp
Here it is the leavening acid, so replace the pair rather than just the tartar: take out both the cream of tartar and the baking soda, and put in 1 tsp of baking powder for every ½ tsp cream of tartar plus ¼ tsp soda. You will get the rise. What you will not get is the tang, which in a snickerdoodle is half the point.
Notes on baking powder
1 tsp for soda + tartar
The job is stopping crystals forming, and the strongest household answer is not another acid but an invert sugar. Use 1 tbsp light corn syrup per cup of sugar. Lemon juice also works at ¼ tsp per cup but adds water you then have to boil off.
Notes on corn syrup or lemon juice
1 tbsp per cup sugar
In a plain meringue made in a spotlessly clean dry bowl with a full weight of sugar, you can leave it out and still get stiff peaks. Read the Leave It Out row for exactly when that holds and when it does not.
Notes on leave it out
Nothing added
Do not pick by which powder looks most like cream of tartar. Pick by which of its three jobs your recipe needs. Whipping egg whites? Any liquid acid does it: ½ tsp lemon juice or white vinegar per white. Paired with baking soda in a dough? That is leavening — pull out both and put in 1 tsp baking powder per ½ tsp tartar plus ¼ tsp soda, and accept that the tang goes with it. Boiling a sugar syrup? The job is blocking crystals, and 1 tbsp corn syrup per cup of sugar does it better than any acid.
Cream of tartar is an acid that happens to be dry. That is how it can fire baking soda from inside the flour, hold an egg-white foam together, and stop a boiling sugar syrup turning grainy.
Acidprimary
It is a dry, powdered acid, so it can be whisked into flour and stored on a shelf next to baking soda without reacting until liquid arrives — a wet acid like vinegar cannot do that.
Sweetnesssecondary
In a hot syrup it inverts a fraction of the sucrose into glucose and fructose, and those different-shaped molecules physically block sugar crystals from growing, which is why boiled icing and candy stay smooth instead of turning sandy.
Leaveningsecondary
Paired with baking soda at 2 parts to 1, it is the trigger half of baking powder: the two meet in the wet batter and release carbon dioxide, which is the rise in a snickerdoodle or a scone.
Aerationsecondary
Lowering the pH of egg white slows the proteins down as they unfold, so they link into a fine even network instead of clumping and squeezing water out — the visible difference between a meringue that stands for hours and one that beads and slumps.
Every option, one card
Ranked · per 1/8 tsp cream of tartar| # | Substitute | Instead of 1/8 tsp cream of tartar | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lemon juicemeringue, pavlova and macarons where a faint citrus note is welcome | ½ tsp fresh or bottled lemon juiceTweak it | Tweak it |
| 2 | White vinegarwhen you need the acid with no flavour and no colour at all | ½ tsp distilled white vinegarTweak it | Tweak it |
| 3 | Tartaric acidwhen you need a dry acid rather than a liquid one | ½ tspper 1 tsp cream of tartarTweak it | Tweak it |
| 4 | Citric acidwhen you already keep it for preserving or for sour candy | A scant 1/16 tsp citric acid, about a small pinchTweak it | Tweak it |
| 5 | Baking powdersnickerdoodles, scones and biscuits, where cream of tartar was there to fire the soda | 1 tspper ½ tsp cream of tartar + ¼ tsp baking sodaYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 6 | Corn syrupcandy, caramel, boiled frosting, fondant and marshmallow | 1 tbsp light corn syrup, added with the sugar and water at the startYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 7 | Leave it outplain meringue and pavlova with a full weight of sugar | Nothing — but wipe the bowl and beaters with vinegar or lemon juice on kitchen paper and dry them firstYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
Lemon juice
a faint clean citrus note in meringue, undetectable in a syrup
A liquid acid at roughly 5 to 6% citric acid, strong enough to do the pH work that stabilizes an egg-white foam.
- Covers
- Acid
- Sweetness
- Aeration
- Amount
- ½ tsp fresh or bottled lemon juice for 1/8 tsp cream of tartar, the usual dose for 1 egg white
- Then
- add it once the whites have gone foamy and opaque, not into the clear raw whites, and carry on whipping
- Best for
- meringue, pavlova and macarons where a faint citrus note is welcome, sugar syrups and boiled frostings, at ¼ tsp per cup of sugar, when the acid is the only job and the recipe has liquid to spare
- Taste
- a faint clean citrus note in meringue, undetectable in a syrup, welcome in most things it goes into
- Texture
- the same in a meringue, provided you add it after the whites are foamy
- Look
- no visible difference in a white meringue; the peaks are just as glossy and just as slow to weep
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, alcohol-free
- Use ½ tsp per egg white. Going heavier does not make the foam stiffer and does start to taste of lemon.
- For a sugar syrup, use ¼ tsp per cup of sugar and add it at the start, before the syrup gets hot.
- In a dry cookie dough, count the ½ tsp toward the recipe's liquid; in a batter of a cup of flour or more, that much is small enough to ignore.
- Do not use it in place of cream of tartar as a leavening acid on its own — a wet acid reacts with baking soda in the bowl, so much of the gas escapes before baking.
This is the substitute that matters most, because stabilizing egg whites is the job cream of tartar is bought for. Bottled juice works as well as fresh here — you want the acid, not the flavour.
For egg foams and syrups. Not a stand-in for the dry acid in a snickerdoodle or in a jar of homemade baking powder.
White vinegar
nothing detectable at ½ tsp per white; a sharp vinegar note if you overdo it
Distilled vinegar at about 5% acetic acid, colourless and with no fruit sugars in it.
- Covers
- Acid
- Aeration
- Amount
- ½ tsp distilled white vinegar for 1/8 tsp cream of tartar, the usual dose for 1 egg white
- Then
- add it when the whites are foamy, then whip on to stiff peaks
- Best for
- when you need the acid with no flavour and no colour at all, pure white meringue, royal icing and white buttercream, when there is no lemon in the house
- Texture
- indistinguishable from cream of tartar in a meringue
- Look
- the whitest result of any option here, because there is no fruit sugar to brown or tint
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free
- Use distilled white vinegar only. Cider, wine and malt vinegars carry colour and a fermented smell that shows in a white meringue.
- Use ½ tsp per egg white and no more; above about a teaspoon per white the smell survives into the baked meringue.
- In a sugar syrup, lemon juice is the better choice — vinegar's smell concentrates as the water boils away.
Chosen over lemon juice when whiteness or a flavourless result matters — royal icing on a wedding cake, a snow-white pavlova shell. The pH job is identical; only the flavour differs.
Egg foams. Do not boil it into candy, and do not use it as the dry acid in a cookie dough or a homemade baking powder.
Tartaric acid
the same clean sour note if you halve it correctly
The free acid that cream of tartar is the half-neutralized potassium salt of, sold to winemakers and bakers as a fine dry powder.
- Covers
- Acid
- Sweetness
- Leavening
- Aeration
- Amount
- ½ tsp tartaric acid for 1 tsp cream of tartar
- Then
- whisk it through the dry ingredients, or dissolve it in a spoonful of the recipe's liquid for a syrup
- Best for
- when you need a dry acid rather than a liquid one, homemade baking powder and snickerdoodle doughs, recipes where added liquid would loosen the dough
- Taste
- the same clean sour note if you halve it correctly; harsh and metallic if you use it 1:1
- Texture
- the same, in every one of the three jobs
- Look
- no difference
- Pantry
- Special trip
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free
- Use half the volume the recipe gives for cream of tartar. Tartaric acid carries two acid groups per molecule at 150 g per mole, against cream of tartar's one at 188, so gram for gram it is roughly twice as strong.
- Measure with a 1/8 tsp spoon or a scale rather than eyeballing a halved teaspoon — at these amounts, guessing shows.
- Dissolve it before it meets sugar in a syrup, or you get a sour pocket.
Widely listed as a 1:1 swap, which is wrong and makes doughs taste metallic. It is the stronger acid of the two and needs halving.
Only useful if you already own it. It is a winemaking and commercial baking ingredient, not a supermarket one.
Citric acid
sharper and more lemon-sour than cream of tartar at the same weight
The dry sour powder sold as sour salt or for home preserving, with three acid groups per molecule.
- Covers
- Acid
- Sweetness
- Aeration
- Amount
- a scant 1/16 tsp citric acid, about a small pinch for 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- Then
- dissolve it in 1 tsp of water before adding it to a foam so it disperses evenly
- Best for
- when you already keep it for preserving or for sour candy, sugar syrups, where its dryness means no extra water to boil off, when you need a dry acid and have no tartaric acid
- Taste
- sharper and more lemon-sour than cream of tartar at the same weight, which is exactly why the amount comes down
- Texture
- the same stabilizing effect on a foam once dissolved
- Look
- no difference when dissolved; visible white specks and a slightly curdled foam surface if it is not
- Pantry
- Special trip
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free
- Use roughly a third of the volume. Citric acid has three acid groups per 192 g mole against cream of tartar's one per 188, so it is about three times as strong by weight.
- Dissolve it in a teaspoon of water first for meringue. Undissolved grains land unevenly and can locally over-acidify the foam, which makes it grainy.
- Do not scale it up because a pinch looks like too little. It is a genuinely strong acid and it turns things unpleasantly sour fast.
Commonly listed at ¼ tsp per 1/8 tsp of cream of tartar, which is twice as much acid as you want rather than a third. The molar arithmetic is on the Numbers list above if you want to check it.
For flavour and pH only. Do not use it to alter the acid level of a tested canning or pickling recipe.
Baking powder
the distinctive sour-tangy edge of a snickerdoodle is gone
Baking soda already blended with a powdered acid, which is to say cream of tartar's leavening job sold ready-paired.
- Covers
- Leavening
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
- Sweetness — not covered
- Aeration — not covered
- Amount
- 1 tsp baking powder for ½ tsp cream of tartar + ¼ tsp baking soda
- Then
- remove the baking soda from the recipe as well as the cream of tartar — do not leave it in
- Best for
- snickerdoodles, scones and biscuits, where cream of tartar was there to fire the soda, when the recipe lists both cream of tartar and baking soda together, when you need the rise and can live without the tang
- Taste
- the distinctive sour-tangy edge of a snickerdoodle is gone; it tastes like a plain sugar cookie with cinnamon on it
- Texture
- slightly cakier and less chewy, because the acid was also keeping the pH low and the gluten tight
- Look
- a little more spread and a little more colour, since baking powder is pH-neutral and leaves any recipe acid unneutralized
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free
- Take the baking soda out too. Leaving it in gives you both an over-leavened batter and the soapy taste of unreacted soda.
- Keep the total leavening near 1 to 1 ¼ tsp of baking powder per cup of flour.
- For snickerdoodle tang, add ½ tsp lemon juice or 2 tbsp of the sugar swapped for brown sugar. Neither is the same, and both are closer than nothing.
This swaps the leavening and drops the flavour, which is the whole reason it sits below the liquid acids. In a snickerdoodle, cream of tartar is a flavour ingredient as much as a chemical one, and this row is honest about not replacing that.
Leavening only. It will not stabilize a meringue and it will not stop a syrup crystallizing — the soda in it is spoken for.
Corn syrup
very slightly sweeter and less clean than a tartar-treated syrup
A glucose syrup that is already the kind of sugar cream of tartar creates in the pan, so it blocks crystals from the moment it goes in.
- Covers
- Sweetness
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
- Leavening — not covered
- Aeration — not covered
- Amount
- 1 tbsp light corn syrup, added with the sugar and water at the start for 1/8 tsp cream of tartar in a syrup made with 1 cup sugar
- Then
- boil to the temperature the recipe gives and do not stir once it is clear
- Best for
- candy, caramel, boiled frosting, fondant and marshmallow, when the only job is keeping the syrup smooth, syrups you cannot afford to add water to
- Taste
- very slightly sweeter and less clean than a tartar-treated syrup; no sourness at all
- Texture
- chewier and softer in a set candy, because glucose holds onto water
- Look
- just as clear and glossy; if anything smoother, with no sugar bloom on the surface as it cools
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free
- Add it at the beginning with the sugar and water, not partway through.
- Reduce the recipe's water by 1 tbsp per tablespoon of corn syrup, since it is about 20% water itself.
- Wipe the sides of the pan with a wet brush once and then leave the syrup alone. Stirring a hot syrup is what starts crystals, whatever you have added.
For crystallization this is the better tool, not merely a stand-in: cream of tartar has to invert some of your sucrose in the pan to work, while corn syrup arrives already inverted. Honey and golden syrup do the same job and both add their own flavour and colour.
Sugar syrups only. It has no acidity, so it does nothing at all for meringue or for leavening.
Leave it out
no change at all
A real option in one narrow case: a well-sugared egg-white foam made in a scrupulously clean, dry, grease-free bowl.
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
- Sweetness — not covered
- Leavening — not covered
- Aeration — not covered
- Amount
- Nothing — but wipe the bowl and beaters with vinegar or lemon juice on kitchen paper and dry them firstper 1/8 tsp cream of tartar in a meringue
- Then
- add the sugar slowly, a spoonful at a time, once the whites are at soft peaks
- Best for
- plain meringue and pavlova with a full weight of sugar, when there is no acid of any kind within reach, recipes calling for a pinch, where nothing else depends on it
- Texture
- softer peaks that need more whipping to reach, and a foam that turns grainy sooner if you overbeat
- Look
- less glossy, and after an hour or two you may see clear liquid beading at the base and the piped shapes losing their edges
- Pantry
- Likely in your cupboard
- Suits
- vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free
- Use a metal or glass bowl, never plastic, which holds a film of fat that stops whites whipping.
- Wipe bowl and whisk with vinegar or lemon juice on kitchen paper, then dry. That trace of acid on the metal is doing a fraction of the job.
- Add the sugar gradually once the whites hold a soft peak. Sugar is the other stabilizer, and adding it slowly does more for a meringue than cream of tartar does.
- Use the foam immediately. Without an acid it starts to weep sooner.
Listed because for a plain meringue this is the honest answer and it is better than sending someone to the shops. Not listed as an option for a snickerdoodle or a homemade baking powder, where the acid is load-bearing.
Egg foams with plenty of sugar, used straight away. Never leave it out of a snickerdoodle recipe that has no other acid — the baking soda then has nothing to react with, and the cookies come out flat and soapy.
Don’t swap it here
5 cases- A recipe that pairs cream of tartar with baking soda, and you plan to remove only the cream of tartar.Remove both and use 1 tsp baking powder per ½ tsp cream of tartar plus ¼ tsp soda.
- Using baking powder to stabilize meringue, pavlova or royal icing.Use ½ tsp lemon juice or white vinegar per egg white, or leave it out and lean on a clean dry bowl and gradual sugar.
- Boiling vinegar into a candy or caramel syrup in place of cream of tartar.Use 1 tbsp light corn syrup per cup of sugar, or ¼ tsp lemon juice per cup.
- SafetyHome canning, pickling, fermenting or curing — using cream of tartar, or swapping between citric acid, lemon juice and vinegar in a tested recipe.Use a tested recipe exactly as written, with the exact acid and amount it specifies. See the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
- SafetyRoyal icing or a cocktail sour made with raw, unpasteurized egg white.Use pasteurized egg whites from a carton, meringue powder, or aquafaba (chickpea liquid). All three whip, and all three take a liquid acid the same way.
Safety
2 notes- Canning
Cream of tartar, lemon juice, vinegar and citric acid are not interchangeable in home canning, pickling, fermenting or curing. Acidity is the safety control in those recipes, and lowering it creates conditions in which Clostridium botulinum can grow. Use a tested recipe with the exact acid and quantity it specifies, and change nothing.
Source — National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab)
- Raw egg
Cream of tartar and its substitutes do not make raw egg white safe. For royal icing, uncooked meringue and cocktail sours, use pasteurized carton egg whites, meringue powder, or aquafaba instead of raw shell eggs.
If it went wrong
4 fixes- The meringue looks grainy and there is clear liquid pooling at the bottom of the bowl.Overbeaten. Without cream of tartar the window between stiff peaks and broken is narrower, because the proteins clump faster and squeeze water out.Whisk in one fresh unbeaten egg white by hand, slowly. It gives the clumped proteins something to re-link with and will often bring the foam back. Then stop the moment it holds a peak.
- The candy or boiled frosting has gone sandy and opaque.Sugar crystallized, either because nothing was there to block it or because the syrup was stirred or scraped once it was hot.Add ¼ cup water per cup of sugar, bring it back to a boil to dissolve every crystal, add 1 tbsp corn syrup per cup of sugar, and reboil to temperature without stirring. It works more often than not.
- The snickerdoodles came out flat, pale and slightly soapy after you dropped the cream of tartar.The baking soda was left in with no acid to react with. Unreacted soda gives that soapy taste and does not leaven.Nothing to do for the baked batch. For the remaining dough, work in ¼ tsp of baking powder per cup of flour and ½ tsp lemon juice, and chill it 30 minutes before baking.
- Egg whites will not whip past a loose froth.Fat in the bowl, a speck of yolk in the whites, or a plastic bowl. Fat prevents the protein film from forming at all, and no acid fixes it.Start again in a metal or glass bowl wiped with vinegar and dried. Separate the eggs one at a time into a cup so a broken yolk only costs you one white.
Measure it
8 measures- Standard dose in meringue1/8 tsp cream of tartar per egg whiteEvery substitution amount on this page is anchored to that 1/8 tsp.
- Liquid acid equivalent1/8 tsp cream of tartar = ½ tsp lemon juice or white vinegar
- Homemade baking powder1 tsp baking powder = ¼ tsp baking soda + ½ tsp cream of tartar2 parts cream of tartar to 1 part soda by volume. Read it backwards to swap the pair out for baking powder.
- Tartaric acid strengthabout twice as strong as cream of tartar by weight, so use halfTartaric acid carries two acid groups per 150 g mole; cream of tartar carries one per 188 g mole.
- Citric acid strengthabout three times as strong by weight, so use a thirdThree acid groups per 192 g mole. This is why the widely repeated ¼ tsp citric per 1/8 tsp tartar is roughly six times too much.
- Anti-crystallization dose in syrup1/8 tsp cream of tartar, or 1 tbsp light corn syrup, per cup of sugarReduce the recipe's water by 1 tbsp if you use corn syrup, which is about 20% water.
- Shelf lifekeeps for years as long as it stays dryIt does not go off so much as clump. A hard lump still works once crushed; what it will not survive is a damp cupboard turning it to paste.
- What it is made fromthe crystalline deposit left on wine barrels during fermentation, purifiedWhich is why it is a byproduct of the wine industry and why it is sometimes labelled potassium hydrogen tartrate.
Questions
10 questionsWhat can I use instead of cream of tartar in meringue?
Use ½ tsp of lemon juice or distilled white vinegar per egg white, in place of the usual 1/8 tsp of cream of tartar. Add it once the whites are foamy rather than at the start. Choose white vinegar if you want no flavour and the whitest possible result, lemon juice if a faint citrus note is fine.
Can I skip cream of tartar in meringue?
In a plain meringue or pavlova with a full weight of sugar, yes. Use a metal or glass bowl, wipe it and the whisk with vinegar or lemon on kitchen paper and dry them, add the sugar gradually once the whites hold a soft peak, and use the foam straight away. You will get stiff peaks. They will be slightly less glossy, easier to overbeat, and quicker to weep clear liquid if the meringue sits.
What is cream of tartar made from?
It is potassium bitartrate, purified from the crystalline deposit that forms on the inside of barrels as wine ferments. That is also why it turns up on labels as potassium hydrogen tartrate, and why it has been in European baking far longer than commercial baking powder has.
Can I substitute cream of tartar in snickerdoodles?
Sort of, and you should know what you lose. Remove both the cream of tartar and the baking soda and use 1 tsp baking powder per ½ tsp cream of tartar plus ¼ tsp soda. You get the same rise. What you do not get is the sour tang that makes a snickerdoodle taste different from a cinnamon sugar cookie — ½ tsp of lemon juice gets you part of the way back.
Is cream of tartar the same as tartaric acid?
No. Cream of tartar is the potassium salt of tartaric acid, and tartaric acid is the free acid — roughly twice as strong by weight, because it carries two acid groups per 150 g mole against cream of tartar's one per 188. Use half the volume. Swapping them 1:1, as many charts suggest, makes doughs taste harsh and metallic.
Can I use baking powder instead of cream of tartar?
Only for leavening, and only if you also remove the recipe's baking soda: 1 tsp baking powder in place of ½ tsp cream of tartar plus ¼ tsp soda. It will not stabilize a meringue, because the acid in baking powder is already committed to reacting with its own soda, and the gas it gives off coarsens a foam you have just whipped fine.
Why does cream of tartar stop sugar crystallizing?
In a hot syrup it splits some of the sucrose into glucose and fructose. Those two molecules are shaped differently from sucrose, so they physically get in the way as crystals try to grow, and the syrup stays smooth. Light corn syrup does the same thing more directly — it is already glucose — which is why 1 tbsp per cup of sugar is the stronger fix.
How long does cream of tartar last?
Years, provided it stays dry. It does not really lose potency the way baking powder does; the failure mode is moisture turning it into a solid cake. Crush a lump and use it. Throw it out if it has gone pasty or smells of anything.
Does cream of tartar stabilize whipped cream?
Not meaningfully. Whipped cream is stabilized by fat, cold and a little sugar, not by acid, and adding acid to cream risks a grainy texture. If you need whipped cream to hold for hours, use 1 tbsp of skimmed milk powder or 1 tsp of cornstarch per cup of cream, or bloomed gelatine.
Can I use citric acid instead of cream of tartar?
Yes, at about a third of the volume — a scant 1/16 tsp per 1/8 tsp of cream of tartar — because citric acid carries three acid groups per 192 g mole. Dissolve it in a teaspoon of water before it goes into egg whites so it does not land in grains. Do not use it to change the acid in a tested canning recipe.
Tips for substituting cream of tartar
9 tips- Cream of tartar is doing one of three completely different jobs in any given recipe: firing baking soda, stabilizing an egg-white foam, or stopping sugar crystallizing. Work out which one before you substitute anything.
- The usual dose in a meringue is 1/8 tsp per egg white, and ½ tsp of lemon juice or white vinegar takes its place exactly.
- Add any acid to egg whites once they have gone foamy and opaque, not into the clear raw whites. Acid added too early slows the foam down noticeably.
- For a white meringue or white royal icing, choose distilled white vinegar over lemon juice: no fruit sugar means no tint and no browning.
- If a recipe lists cream of tartar and baking soda together, they are a pair. Removing one and not the other is the single commonest way this substitution goes wrong.
- In candy and boiled frosting, an invert sugar beats an acid. A tablespoon of light corn syrup per cup of sugar blocks crystals from the start, where cream of tartar has to invert some of your sucrose in the pan first.
- Once a hot sugar syrup is clear, stop stirring and stop scraping the sides. Agitation is what starts crystals growing, no matter what you have added to prevent it.
- Snickerdoodles are the one cookie where cream of tartar is a flavour ingredient. Swap it for baking powder and you get the rise but not the tang, and the result tastes like a cinnamon sugar cookie.
- A hard clump in an old tub is not spoilage — crush it and use it. What ruins cream of tartar is damp, not age.
Sources — National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab), FDA Food Additive Status List (opens in a new tab)