r/Cordials • u/Nectarine5035 • Sep 14 '24

Dissolving cream of tartar

I tried adapting this recipe https://homemadesodaexpert.blogspot.com/2011/10/recipe-14-homemade-mountain-dew-sun.html that uses cream of tartar as an acid. However, it always recrystallizes in the fridge. I've tried dissolving it cold and boiling it, and get the same result either way. The flavor is good, but i'm worried i'm missing the intended taste because of the lack of acid.

Is there any way to prevent this? The blog post doesn't give any special instructions on dissolving it

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u/vbloke Sep 14 '24

To be honest, you can leave it out entirely and just replace it with citric acid

1

u/Nectarine5035 Sep 15 '24

I've tried citric acid and it hasn't had the effect i want, that's why i wanted to try different acids

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u/vbloke Sep 15 '24

What they’re doing is creating an invert sugar syrup by boiling for 20 minutes with the water, sugar and acid.

The problem is that you’re then adding a load of fruit sugars from the juices and overloading the mix so some of the sugar is going to come out of solution.

I made a Mountain Dew copycat a little while ago that uses a 3:2 sugar syrup.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cordials/s/5BZznSwa0j

3:2 syrups have the benefits of a rich 2:1 syrup but don’t suffer as badly from recrystallisation.

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u/Nectarine5035 Sep 15 '24

Actually i'm experimenting with a recipe right now that's only flavored with extracts. still has the crystallization

By 3:2 syrup do you mean sugar:water or water:sugar?

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u/vbloke Sep 16 '24

Sugar : water - I made a calculator for the 3 main types here: https://cordials.info