what does saltpetre taste like?

[Mazzini]

I know this is a strange question. I have seen saltpetre as an ingredient in a tudor recipe for spiced beef casserole. Now I know saltpetre is used in gunpowder and it is flamable but I didn't think of putting it in stew! Does anyone know what flavour it adds to a dish? Apparently 'good chemists' sell it although I will have to keep a straight face asking for that one!! Many thanks x

[Buenchico]

This site quotes from Webster's Dictionary and says that Potassium Nitrate (saltpetre) has a 'cooling saline taste':
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=439123

Chris

[barb1314]

If you have ever eaten bacon or any other cured meats and fish you will have eaten saltpetre...all it is is a preservative used in curing methods...no major flavour but commonly used in all Smokehouses like the one I work at.I wouldn't think you'd have to use it now for a stew..in Tudor times they had no other way of preservation for the meat...I would guess at that being the reason that it's in your recipe.Hope that helps Mazzini.

[mrrobbo15]

..in the 80s wen i worked in a butchers shop, we wud use saltpetre in water in a big plastic dustbin. every saturday when there were beef joints left, we wud just throw them in it and sell them the following week as salt beef

limited knowledge but thats all i know about it

[Mazzini]

Thank you all very much for your answers, they are appreciated.

[Mazzini]

By the way, tried to buy saltpetre at that well known High Street chemist - the assistant didn't know what it was... suggested I try a small old fashioned chemist in my town that sold 'old' ingredients (sounds very Dickensian doesn't it). They at least knew what it was but didn't sell it and were frankly rather curious and suspicious that I wanted to buy it so I guess my spicy stew will have to do without....

[Buenchico]

50g costs �2.00, 100g costs �2.99, 250g costs �4.00 (all with free postage) here:
http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Saltpetre__500_gra mmes.html

Chris

[Mazzini]

Gosh thank you Chris, you are a star!

Mazzini

[brachiopod]

Saltpetre is not actually flammable itself. It is an oxidising agent, which means it will assist the combustion of a combustible material. (Hence when mixed with charcoal, it allows the charcoal to burn very rapidly (ie explosively) as in gunpowder.)

[Kingaroo]

Isn't it also supposed to decrease male libido? I thought I'd heard of people sneaking saltpeter into a man's food to curb his ways.

[Mazzini]

Apparently that is a myth....but it is used as the active ingredient in toothpaste for sensitive teeth. According to this website.....

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:S19pR4yIMBwJ:en.wiki pedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate+saltpetre%2Bproperties& amp;hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[helliebobs]

and if you soak lavendar stems in it, you can then burn them (let them dry out first) like incense.