DF: Treasures we want to see

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Don't eat that! That's not black pepper! That's black powder!

Black powder is perfectly edible, although it tastes mostly like charcoal (being mostly charcoal). You won't blow up from eating it, and you won't be poisoned. You might expose yourself to mouth and bowl cancers if you make a habit of it due to the nitrates (trites?), but that's just like eating corned beef, hot-dogs, bacon, and other meats preserved with nitrates (trites?).

You might be able to press it into service as an improvised meat preservative in the field if you only have the final product, not the raw niter. Everything WILL taste like soot and farts, which while better than starving, is not very nice.