Hello Sabine!
Maybe I was dreaming, but didn't you say this on Monday March 17 1997
 IH>> Sabine means here. there's a product called "San Apart" which is a
 SB> Oh, I didn't know that you know that over there, too :-)
Not under that name. I bought San Apart in Germany, which is why I thought I 
knew what the recipe meant! I've seen a similar product on sale here in 
France, though I don't remember what it was called, nor what was in it.
 SB> I've heard that a bit of sugar could do the same job, but I never
 SB> tried
Well, the problem is not getting cream stiff, but keeping it stable in 
something like a cake for a couple of days. I've not found that sugar is much 
of a help in this either.
 SB> My dictionary says, that cream of tartar means Weinstein. I've never 
heard
 SB>  about this.
That's right. You know that some Moselle wines can throw a few crystals on 
the cork, or round the neck, that's the same stuff.
 SB> The egg whites always get stiffed when you avoid the egg yolk
 SB>  dropping in. One little bit of egg yolk - no chance.
Ansolutely right. Though the general rule is to avoid fat of any kind, even 
from your fingers. When I used to demonstrate cooking, I used to make a point 
of washing my hands as well as all the utensils immediately before separating 
eggs, and drying the bowl etc with a spotlessly clean drying up cloth. Any 
grease on the bowl, or egg beaters (or egg yolk as you said) can prevent the 
whites from beating as light as they should be. Another thing to watch out 
for is the little specks of blood that one sees sometimes in whites. You 
would be best advised to fish them out.
  Another tip with eggs, is always to use the shell to manipulate anything in 
the white. If you _do_ happen to get a tiny amount of yolk into the white, 
you can use the egg shell to scoop it out without stirring it into the white. 
Same goes for a fragment of broken shell.
  I was taught that you should always add the tiniest pinch of salt and cream 
of tartar to whites to make them lift to their maximum size. The salt makes 
the whites get more liquid quickly, so that they'll beat easily, and the 
cream of tartar makes them more stable once beaten. It isn't that they'll go 
stiffer or do it quicker, but you know how once they're beaten they can 
collapse fairly quickly? Well a little cream of tartar is supposed to slow 
that down. I was taught that it compensated fof the fact that we don't use 
copper bowls for beating whites as we used to. The copper also helped the 
whites keep stiff longer.
All the Best
Ian
--- GoldED 2.50+
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