Potassium Nitrate?

POTASSIUM NITRATE is used in the brine when curing hams(it is what keeps the ham pink in color) Drug stores sell it as SALTPETER, say it is for curing hams and don't ask for 40 pounds of the stuff. My recipe calls for 7 lbs salt, 3 lbs brown sugar, 4 tablespoons of saltpeter, 7 gallons of water this is injected with a meat pump( meat hypo) into 60 lbs of meat. This recipe could legitimize your request for saltpeter. You don't need lots and too much is harmful to the flavor and your health. I bought mine in a small container in a SAFEWAY pharmacy. Sometimes saltpeter is a mixture of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite, my package says SALTPETER potassium nitrate
 
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I've used it for making BP and it is good for curing ham, and I have also heard that it is usefull for making hard noodles limp, or as a peter softener:)
 
Stump Remover is Potassium Nitrate. It's expensive to buy it that way ($14 for 250 g)but is cheaper than buying USP grade from a Pharmacy. Or go to a Farm Supplier (Wholesale) and Buy a Sack (20 Kilo) of it cheap). You may have to give your name and address but is cheap that way. Remember to keep it sealed in an airtight container as it is Hydroscopic and will absorb water.
 
DMcFaul said:
It's also the crystals in those instant cold packs.
Click to expand...

No, that is ammonium nitrate. But why go to all this crazy trouble of drug stores and stump remover when it is so cheap to buy by the 50# sack?
 
Call me Saturday night and remind me to bring some to the Nanaimo Gun Show for you :>) Also I would suspect that if you simply dissolved black powder in water, you would effectively have a solution of saltpeter and water. The charcoal is not going to dissolve much or at all and that just leaves sulfur and saltpeter dissolving.

cheers Doug
 
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