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Hi List:
Here are the responses to my inquiries about 1) what's a good soysauce
substitute and 2) what does cream of tartar do? (It seems to work well in my
pancakes & muffins.) Thanks for the responses!
 Wendy, Exton, PA

SOYSAUCE SUBSTITUTE
1. Tamari sauce San J low salt no wheat.  I get it in the HFS.  Rosalie
2. A good replacement for soy sauce might be thai fish sauce.  It is salty
just like soy, but doesn't contain soy.  As long as you are not
allergic to the fish they use (sometimes it's anchovies, sometimes
it's other fish...read the label)...also, I'm not too sure about
the GF status of some of the fish sauces out there, and most of
them are manufactured outside the US...Jill
3. Try a gf brand of oyster sauce.  Unless of course you have shellfish
allergies
4. When I mentioned my concern to someone at a near-by Thai-Chinese
restaurant, they suggested having the dish cooked using fish sauce.
5. When I make a sauce for meat I add cranberry juice to the beef stock to
give it a little fruity zing.  I use about 1 teaspoon of frozen concentrate.
6. Recipe:
  One and one half cups boiling water
  4 T. beef bouillon
  1/16 tes Pepper
  1 T dark molasses
  4 T cider vinegar
  1 tespoon sesame seed oil
Pour into a jar and shake well.Keeps indefinetely if refrigerated.  Nancy

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CREAM OF TARTAR
1. Cream of tartar I believe adds some acid to help in the leavening process.
cbh/Montana
2. Cream of tartar is potassium acid tartrate and is somehow a product of
the wine industry, although I don't know how it is produced.  It acts as
a stabilizer, chiefly for eggs.  It gives egg whites body without drying
them out.  They will, therefore, give body to the bread or cake, etc,
that you are baking.  A good rule of thumb is 1 tsp. cream of tartar per
cup of egg whites if you're doing something like an angel food cake or
meringues.  Usually a tsp. will add body to any bread or cake you're
making containing eggs. Robin
3. Cream of tartar is great.  No problems.  Used mainly as stabilizer for your
beaten egg whites.  Also holds things together like cornstarch in baked goods.
Sandy
4. I teach high school food science and we spend some time working with
leavening agents (makes food rise).  Cream of tartar (Originally it came from
the sediment that is found in wine) is combined with baking soda (sodium
bicarbonate) to keep the sodium bicarbonate from turning in to sodium
carbonate which tastes terrible. When sodium bicarbonate is heated with water
it gives off Carbon dioxide and water vapor.  You can try this at home and
find out what sodium carbonate tastes like (its gf).  When sodium bicarbonate
is combined with a liquid or dry acid it keeps that carbon from breaking away
and causing the bad taste.  Liquid acids include buttermilk (liquid or
powder), lemon juice, vinegar, sour milk.  The dry acid we use in cooking is
Cream of Tartar. Commercial baking powders include baking soda and cream of
tartar and usually have a filler like corn starch, but you should read the
label. You can make your own baking powder but you need to put your recipe in
the oven right away before it loses the CO2 that is given off
(single-acting baking powder) when it is combined with a liquid. So now you
know that cream of tartar is an acid.  Just changing the pH (acidity) of a
product may be producing some different results in a recipe.  If you add cream
of tartar to whipping cream or egg white before you whip them you will get
more volume.  The acid breaks down the proteins, causing them to unfold and
trap more air.  Both of these will also be more stable and "hold" their shape
longer after they are whipped.