CREAM OF TARTAR

is refined Argol, or Tartar, a substance found in the juice of grapes and obtained as a precipitate after its fermentation. It has an acid, cooling taste, and is used in the preparation of summer drinks, as an aid in raising bread and cakes, etc. Its sale by grocers has been greatly lessened by the increase in the popular use of baking powders.

There are usually from one to three inches of dark "grounds" or lees at the bottom of a full barrel of new wine after it has stood long enough to settle. After a certain time, the lees are removed in a "cake" and then dried and broken up till they are about the size of common sand and of a pinkish tinge, like the "tailings" of a Nevada quartz mill. This product is sold to tartar manufacturers.

In refining, the powdered lees is put into vats of hot water, cooked for about two hours and then run off into shallow receivers around which the crystals speedily form in a thick mass. The same water is used repeatedly as it always holds a certain quantity of tartar in solution.

Tartar from wine that has been cleared with plaster is richest in Tartaric Acid, while that formed in wine that is cleared with eggs is richest in Cream of Tartar. The tartar takes a tinge of pink or cream, as the wine in which it forms is red or "white."

Cream of Tartar is generally adulterated, sometimes to the extent of two-thirds or three-fourths of the bulk sold. As a majority of the articles added are insoluble earths, it can be tested by boiling it in water eighty times its own bulk--if any sediment remains, it is not pure.