Milk, sherry, lemon and fifteen grains of purified nitre — half on getting into bed, the rest ten minutes later.
1235. Boil a pint and a half of skimmed milk, and two glasses of raisin or sherry wine, fifteen grains of purified nitre, and lemon-juice enough to turn the milk; boil it up, and then set it aside until the curd subsides; strain it, and add enough sugar to make it pleasant; one half to be taken on getting into bed, the other ten minutes afterwards.
The British Cookery Book, 1864. Public domain; transcription unaltered.
Fifteen grains is close to a gram of potassium nitrate, sold by apothecaries as a cooling salt and diaphoretic. In quantity nitrate irritates the gut and interferes with the blood's oxygen carrying.
The language gives the game away. “One half to be taken on getting into bed, the other ten minutes afterwards” is a prescription, not a recipe, printed in a cookery book.
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