The French recipe for the manufacture of salt peter and niter may have been featured #1 because the French palette was already gourmet trained and cultured for shit and piss tasting purposes. It seems to me it has to be an acquired taste. The rest of the story may even include using unwashed French Prostitutes for taste training purposes.
More historical research may prove quite interesting, such as the trials and tribulations of the very first guy to make salt peter and exactly how he discovered its volatile nature. Like I said it could be interesting shit.