Home / Substitution Guides / Cream of Tartar
Cream of tartar is a powdered acid with three separate jobs: stabilizing whipped egg whites, activating baking soda, and preventing sugar from crystallizing in candy. There's no single substitute · you swap based on which job it's doing in your recipe.
Best for: Meringue, macarons, angel food · whipping egg whites
That's about ½ tsp per egg white. Add once the whites are foamy.
Best for: Snickerdoodles and recipes pairing it with soda
You lose the signature tang · cookies taste slightly milder.
Best for: Candy, caramel, frosting syrups
Does the same anti-crystallizing job a different way.
In meringue you can technically skip it · whites still whip, but the foam is fragile and weeps faster, so don't skip it in macarons or angel food. In snickerdoodles the cream of tartar IS the flavor (that faint sour twang); the baking powder version rises fine but tastes closer to a plain sugar cookie.
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Replace both leaveners: for the classic 2 teaspoons cream of tartar + 1 teaspoon baking soda, use 3 teaspoons of baking powder instead. The cookies rise the same but lose a bit of the signature tang · add ½ teaspoon of lemon zest to the dough to bring it back.
You need an acid, not that acid. Add ½ teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar per egg white once the whites are foamy. Skipping acid entirely works in a forgiving pavlova but makes macarons and angel food noticeably less stable.
Related guides: Baking Powder · Baking Soda · Corn Syrup · All guides