SC - Re: Long Pepper (again!)

[Mark Schuldenfrei]

  > Some of my German recipes call for 'hartshorn' as an ingredient.  Do we
  > have any animal chemists on the list to know if deer antlers contain
  > cream of tartar or something like baking powder or soda?  If so, it may
  > be a leavening in period.
  
  Nope, they contain ammonia, which was used as a rising agent in period.

I'm not sure that this is right.  It was discussed (some years ago) on
the rec.food.historic list.  I found a bunch of the relevant articles
with http://www.dejanews.com/ searching that newsgroup for "ammonia".

Hartshorn is a mixture of ammonimum bi-carbonate and ammonimum
carbonate, and is still used in Europe today.  Cream of Tartar is
tartaric acid, and baking powders and sodas are primarily sodium
bi-carbonate.

The physical action of ammonium carbonate when it becomes CO2 and
ammonia is slightly different, and I gather the textures are noticably
different to the connoiseur.  Hartshorn is also volatile, and spoils, and
there appear to be "chemistry issues" when it is mixed into sour foods.

Some of the posters thought that baking powder and soda could be used as a
substitute, but would give a soapy flavor.  Others thought that hartshorn
gave an ammoniacal flavor.  I dunno.

		Tibor