Tasting Black Powder

M

Model12Win

Moderator
DISCLAIMER:

I do not recommend nor endorse the consumption of black powder. The following text is for information uses ONLY. I will not be held responsible for injury or death from someone else consuming black powder or any other substance.

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Hello everyone! Well some of you may know that during times of emergency, soldiers and explorers have used black powder (gunpowder) as a seasoning for foods. One famous instance is how Napoleon's forces once had to cook up dead horses and they used gunpowder to season the meat.

Now I've never heard of anyone actually doing this in modern times. So, I decided I would try it. :)

I've got a couple of pounds of GOEX authentic black powder around, and some freshly hard boiled eggs and they needed some seasoning! First though, I decided to look up the MSDS on GOEX black powder:

http://www.goexpowder.com/images/LoadCharts/SDS Sheets-GOEX Black Powder.pdf

As can be seen, the ingredients in this powder are:

Charcoal
Sulfur
Potassium Nitrate
Graphite

This is the same for any authentic black powder, minus the graphite sometimes. The graphite is simply added in small quantities to powders marked "g" as in "FFg" etc. and is used as a flowing agent. The other three chemicals are all actually used in food, believe it or not.

Charcoal gets on your hot dogs and burgers while grilling, and in fact is used to treat poisonings (see activated charcoal). Charcoal is non toxic. Sulfur is of extremely low toxicity and can be found in many natural foods. Potassium nitrate is widely used as a food preservative, and is largely non toxic unless consumed in huge quantities.

All in all, from my reading, it looks like a person would have to eat a couple pounds of straight GOEX powder in order to experience potentially deadly effect. A few grains sprinkled on horse meat or other food won't hurt you at all. Keep in mind I only speak of REAL black powder, NOT black powder substitutes such as Pyrodex and Hodgdon's 777 are not of the same chemical composition as real black powder and therefore could be very unsafe to consume.

So, in the name of science and my own personal curiosity, I applied a sprinkling of GOEX FFg powder onto a hard boiled egg cut in half lengthwise and took a bite:

20160115_213842.jpg


The flavor is very interesting. The powder does have a sort of background saltiness to it, but mostly it tasted kind of bitter and astringent. It almost has a "tang" to it. I also tasted a few grains by themselves, and it does taste kind of like how it smells, a bit sulfury but mostly that tangy bitter flavor. The taste is quite similar to the artificial table salt substitutes you can buy in the spice aisle at the grocery store. There is also a rather charred taste in the background as well, no doubt from the charcoal. But it really doesn't taste "salty" in the literal sense, but did add flavor to the egg, and was not repulsive in taste.

While not particularly good, I could see how a soldier or mountain man would have used this to add some kind of flavor to whatever they were eating in lack of proper seasonings.

So there you have it folks. Again, I absolutely DO NOT promote doing this (see disclaimer). I did this to tell you what it was like, so you don't have to eat black powder. This was done purely for educational purposes about a historic subject. Thank you for reading!

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DISCLAIMER:

I do not recommend nor endorse the consumption of black powder. The following text is for information uses ONLY. I will not be held responsible for injury or death from someone else consuming black powder or any other substance.
 
I do not know about modern production methods,but during the days when BP was THE powder,and folks used Curtis and Harvey,Hazzards,etc
I have read that the premium powders were made using urine ,preferably horse urine,as the moistening agent used in the mix.

And,in days before indoor plumbing,the contents of chamber pots was passed on to "night soil collectors".

The "night soil" was used in the production of black powder.

One of the richest sources of nitrates for BP was a good bat guano cave.

You may season your eggs in any manner you choose.

I prefer a small stash of chili pequin.A little goes a long way.Quite good on eggs.
 
Once upon a time, a range and club where I was a member had a wild game dinner each hunting season.
A lot of the members were into historical re-enactment.
And they used BP for an authentic seasoning.
Not bad and would definitely do the job in the days before refrigeration.
Anyone remember ice boxes, the ones with the fans on top?
 
Think of the ingredients your eating
Charcoal
Sulfur
POTASSIUM NITRATE
Click to expand...
Surprise!

Food preservation
In the process of food preservation, potassium nitrate has been a common ingredient of salted meat since the Middle Ages,[21] but its use has been mostly discontinued because of inconsistent results compared to more modern nitrate and nitrite compounds. Even so, saltpeter is still used in some food applications, such as charcuterie and the brine used to make corned beef.[22] When used as a food additive in the European Union,[23] the compound is referred to as E252; it is also approved for use as a food additive in the USA[24] and Australia and New Zealand[25] (where it is listed under its INS number 252).[2] Although nitrate salts have been suspected of producing the carcinogen nitrosamine, both sodium and potassium nitrates and nitrites have been added to meats in the US since 1925, and nitrates and nitrites have not been removed from preserved meat products because nitrite and nitrate inhibits the germination of C. botulinum endospores, and thus prevents botulism from bacterial toxin that may otherwise be produced in certain preserved meat products.[26] [27]
Click to expand...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate
 
Model12Win, my son. You need a girlfriend. HAHAHAHAHA. And stay outta my kitchen. HAHAHAHAHAHA.
"...potassium nitrate has been a common ingredient of salted meat since the Middle Ages..." Before then, but what they're not telling you is where KNO3(AKA Salt Petre. Said to be added to food to reduce the, um, libido.) came from in days of yore. Poop and pee.
Pyrodex ain't the same.
 
Think of this conversation the next time you have a hotdog. :)
And guess what we're having for dinner.
If they haven't killed us by now......
Well it is a preservative, right?
Might be doing us some good.
 
Potassium nitrate aka niter and saltpeter, has a taste somewhat like salt substitute for one real good reason, salt substitute is potassium chloride.
I would presume that sodium nitrate also known as Chile saltpeter would taste a little more like sodium chloride or table salt.
Sodium nitrate is called "Chile saltpeter" because there are huge deposits of it in the country of Chile. It can also be used to make black powder but it tends to draw water out of the air and just like sodium chloride, it makes the flames yellow.

Urea in urine breaks down into ammonia and carbon dioxide in the presence of moisture and certain soil bacteria. The ammonia in turn is converted first into nitrites and then into nitrates by other soil bacteria. The nitrates are leached out of the soil and passed through wood ashes which contains potassium hydroxide (lye) which reacts with the nitrates to form potassium nitrate.
Or you can just buy saltpeter from the store. McCormick spices used to sell it in the spice rack of grocery stores for making dried sausage and other cured meats. Probably still do.
 
Didn't the USN used to add potassium nitrate to the sailors' food to help keep the VD rate down? The theory was that it promoted erectile dysfunction (no naughty jokes please).
 
Well according to Wikipedia, there is no scientific evidence to show that saltpeter causes impotence... so...

But like I said, this was just an experiment. I won't add this to my boiled eggs ever again, unless maybe I'm on a battlefield and have some dead horse strewn about. :)
 
The original reason spices were so highly coveted was to mask the smell and taste of food that was beyond it's expiration date until the advent of modern refrigeration and food preservation techniques.
 
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