Tartaric acid is a brownish red acid powder which is precipitated onto the walls of casks used to age wine. When refined into a white acid powder which is Cream of Tartar is used in baking. Cream of tartar is an acid powder. Combined with baking Soda, this is useful to make a baking powder. Cream of tartar is used to give a texture of cream to sugary things like frosting, candy and to stabilize and increase the volume of beaten egg whites.It is also used to clean brass and copper cookware.

Cream of tartar was also well known in ancient days, ever since wine was made from grapes, since it could be gathered on the sides and at the bottom of wine vases. Alchemists used it as a flux for certain metals, Paracelsus claimed it had great therapeutic virtues, a panacea for every sickness. Van Helmont explained that how the cream was separated from the wine. Boerhave also identified it in grape must, and other chemists such as Libavius, Corvnus and Sola discovered the presence of potassium in it. It was given the name of Tartar, an Arabic word meaning wine deposit.