Got a hangover? Don’t try this

Last night, I caught about 40 minutes of El Dorado on TV.

I love this movie for so many reasons.

First, it has John Wayne.  That in it’s own right is enough to cause me to watch it 7 days a week.  However, in this one….his acting is pretty good.

It was the first movie my family owned on BETAMAX (remember those?).  My brother brought home a Beta VCR from Korea, and the first movie we watched was El Dorado (we also had MASH, Beastmaster and Caddyshack in that first run of movies).  So there is a bit of nostalgia.

Last, but not least…….Johnny Diamond’s Sober-up Elixir.

For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, Robert Mitchum (Sherriff JP) is a drunk.  Not just your average drunk….but a falling down, full on DTs Drunk.  But he’s also a good guy and friend to John Wayne (Cole Thorton).  So, when JW shows up…..he decides he needs a quick pick-me-up for his buddy.

Enter James Caan (Mississippi).  I won’t go into to much of his back-story…..for those of you who have seen the movie, you know…and for those who haven’t…..enjoy.   But I will go into the recipe that his mentor Johnny Diamond taught him:

MISSISSIPPI- Johnny Diamond had a recipe. Let’s see. Cayenne pepper, mustard <the hot kind>, ipecac, asafoetida, and oil of cloves… or was it? No, it was croton oil.
BULL- Croton oil?! I’ll be a suck-egg mule. You know what that mixture will do to a feller?
MISSISSIPPI: Guaranteed kill or cure.

The last ingredient added was gunpowder.

This made me wonder, what were those ingredients and how did they all play into sobering up JP?  Of course, this could just be Hollywood (we all know how they make things up), but I thought better of John Wayne wanting to be accurate. 

So, let’s analyze the ingredients:

• Cayenne Pepper- A hot spice of the Nightshade Family
• Mustard- it facilitates digestion by promoting the secretion of gastric juices if used in small quantities as a condiment.  Can be used as an Emetic (vomiting agent)
• Ipecac – Made from dried rhizome and the roots of the ipecacuanha plant.  Substance used to induce vomiting and used in poison treatment.
• Asafoetida- Native to Persia, reduces the growth of microflora in the gut, reducing flatulence.
• Croton Oil- Oil from India and Laya Archipelago.  Small Doses taken internally cause Diarrhea.
• Gun Powder – The hardest to figure out.  My guess is it being used as another Emetic, however…there is a history of Gunpowder being used in medicine, in some cases for sterilization. 

So, in retrospect…..maybe Ol’ Johnny Diamond was on to something. 

I can’t imagine a situation where I would want to mix all those ingredients together and drink it.  In fact, it even sounds worse than the Corned Beef and Cabbage Tom Collins drink Randy posted on FB.

The whole thing SEEMS sound…..and I guess if you are in a pinch, you would do almost anything….just don’t give it to me ;)