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Step 3Cream of Tartar and Corn Syrup (Chemical Voodoo)
You can omit the cream of tartar, but it has magical properties (well, OK, not *magical*... but it does help out quite a bit). Cream of Tartar, or Tartaric Acid is a biproduct of the wine making industry. It is known chemically as potassium hydrogen tartrate, and has a chemical formula of: KC4H5O6. Tartaric acid is also a primary ingredient in baking powder. So, if you ever run out of baking powder, just use equal parts of baking soda (a base), and cream of tartar (an acid).
As for the "magical" properties... it is used to prevent the sugar from crystalizing. It does this by breaking down some of the sugar molecules at the single oxygen atom, creating single molecules of glucose and fructose.
The corn syrup is mostly glucose, and acts as a buffer between sucrose molecules preventing them from joining together in one giant mass and ruining your crystal clear confection. Since we are using corn syrup, you can omit the cream of tartar, but I like to hedge my bets, and I've found that I get a better result more consistently (less likely to flash crystalize when the heat is off) when I use the cream of tartar.
As for the "magical" properties... it is used to prevent the sugar from crystalizing. It does this by breaking down some of the sugar molecules at the single oxygen atom, creating single molecules of glucose and fructose.
The corn syrup is mostly glucose, and acts as a buffer between sucrose molecules preventing them from joining together in one giant mass and ruining your crystal clear confection. Since we are using corn syrup, you can omit the cream of tartar, but I like to hedge my bets, and I've found that I get a better result more consistently (less likely to flash crystalize when the heat is off) when I use the cream of tartar.
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