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Organic Spices
Turmeric,
Ginger,
Garlic,
Pepper,
Fenugreek, Cardamom, Cinnamon,
Cumin,
Chili, Nutmeg,
Coriander, Mustard, Tamarind, Vanilla, Sesame
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Organic Foods
Banana, Coconut, Guava, Mango, Papaya, Tomato, Onion, Honey, Arrowroot, Niger, Maize, Peanut, Rice, Castor, Red gram, Black gram, Sorghum, Cashew
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Organic Herbs
Aloe Vera, Amla, Neem, Basil, Bacopa, Licorice, Chebula, Asparagus, Ashwagandha, Stevia, Coleus, Senna
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Nutmeg & Mace Certified Organic
Nutmeg & Mace Spices: Nutmeg and mace have similar taste qualities, nutmeg having a slightly sweeter and mace a more delicate flavour. Mace is often preferred in light dishes for the bright orange, saffron-like hue it imparts. Nutmeg is a tasty addition to cheese sauces and is best grated fresh. Nutmeg is a traditional ingredient in mulled cider, mulled wine, and eggnog. Both nutmeg and mace are used as condiment particularly in sweet foods. The spice in the ground form is mainly used in the food processing industry especially as a standard seasoning in many Dutch dishes. It may also be used in small quantities in garam masala. In Middle Eastern cuisine, nutmeg grounds are often used as a spice for savoury dishes. In European cuisine, nutmeg and mace are used especially in potato dishes and in processed meat products; they are also used in soups, sauces, and baked goods. Japanese varieties of curry powder include nutmeg as an ingredient.
Nutmeg & Mace Health: Nutmeg can help induce sleep. In ayurveda, it is normally taken in warm milk before bed. Nutmeg pacifies air and water and increases fire. It contains pungent, bitter and astringent taste, it is warming. It stimulates appetite and digestion. Nutmeg is used in spiced teas, desserts and in baking. The oil extract of the nutmeg tree is used to counter irritated skin and stimulates blood flow to the area applied. Nutmeg fruit is also used as an aphrodisiac and as a nerve tonic. It has anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and antibacterial properties.
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Nutmeg & Mace are two distinctly different spices produced from a fruit of an evergreen tree usually 9-12 mtr high. Mace is the dried reticulated ‘aril’ of the fruit and nutmeg is the dried seed kernel of the fruit. The trees are normally unisexual, bearing either male or female flowers. The male flowers are born in clusters, whereas female flowers are often solitary. Fruit is a fleshy drupe, spherical in shape, pale yellow in colour with a longitudinal groove in the centre. When the fruit mature it burst open along the groove exposing the bright attractive mace, covering the hard black, shiny shell of the seed called nutmeg.
Origin and Distribution
Nutmeg tree is indigenous to Moluccas. The major nutmeg growing areas are Indonesia and Granada. It also grows on a smaller scale in Sri Lanka, India, China, Malaysia, Zanzibar, Mauritius and Solomon Island.
Nutmeg thrives well in places with warm humid climate from sea level up to 600 mtrs MSL. It grows on a variety of soils from sandy to clayey loams and red laterite soils with good drainage. A well-distributed annual rainfall of 250 cm is ideal for the crop.
USES
Both nutmeg and mace are used as condiment particularly in sweet foods. The spice in the ground form is mainly used in the food processing industry especially as a standard seasoning in many Dutch dishes. Nutmeg oleoresin is used in the preparation of meat products, soups, sauces, baked foods, confectionaries, puddings, seasoning of meat and vegetable etc. The fleshy outer cover of the fruit is crystallized or pickled or made into jellies. Mace is used in savory dishes.
It is used as a drug in Eastern countries because of its stimulant, carminative, astringent and aphrodisiac properties. Excessive doses have a narcotic effect. Nutmeg oil is used in cosmetics and toiletries.
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Botanical name |
Family name |
Commercial part |
Myristica fragrans |
Myristicaceae |
Seed |
| Indian Names |
| Hindi |
: Jaiphal |
| Bengali |
: Jaiphal |
| Gujarati |
: Jaiphal |
| Kannada |
: Jayikai |
| Kashmiri |
: Zaaphal |
| Malayalam |
: Jathikka |
| Marathi |
: Jaiphal |
| Oriya |
: Jaiphala |
| Punjabi |
: Jaiphal |
| Sanskrit |
: Jatiphala |
| Tamil |
: Jathikai |
| Telugu |
: Jajikai |
| Urdu |
: Jaiphal |
| Arabic |
: Jouza at-Teeb |
| French |
: Noix de muscade, Muscade |
| Italian |
: Noce moscata |
| German |
: Muskatnu |
Further Reading:
Sensory quality: Both spices are strongly aromatic, resinous and warm in taste. Mace is generally said to have a finer aroma than nutmeg, but the difference is small.
Main constituents: Nutmeg contains about 10% essential oil, which is mostly composed of terpene hydrocarbons (sabinene and pinenes; furthermore camphene, p-cymene, phellandrene, terpinene, limonene, myrcene, together 60 to 80%), terpene derivatives (linalool, geraniol, terpineol, together 5 to 15%) and phenylpropanoids (myristicin, elemicin, safrol, eugenol and eugenol derivatives, together 15 to 20%). Of the latter group, myristicin (methoxy-safrole, typically 4%) is responsible for the hallucinogenic effect of nutmeg.
Oil of mace (up to 12% in the spice) contains the same aroma components, but the total fraction of terpenoids is increased to almost 90% at the cost of the phenylpropanoids (10%).
Both nutmeg and mace contain about 2% of lignanes (diarylpropanoids), which are nonvolatile dimers of phenylpropanoid constituents of the essential oil, e.g., dehydrodiisoeugenol.
Nutmeg and mace became known in Europe comparatively late because of the very limited geographical distribution of the nutmeg tree. Nutmeg’s popularity is in most in Arab countries, Iran and Northern India, where both nutmeg and mace appear in delicately-flavoured meat dishes. The Northern Indian spice mixture garam masala also may contain nutmeg or mace, as well as compositions of Morocco (ras el hanout), neighbouring Tunisia (gâlat dagga) and Saudi Arabia (baharat).
In Western cuisine, nutmeg and mace are more popular for cakes, crackers and stewed fruits; nutmeg is sometimes used to flavour cheese (fondue, Béchamel sauce). The combination of spinach with nutmeg is somewhat a classic, especially for Italian stuffed noodles, e.g., ravioli. The greatest lovers of nutmeg in today’s Europe, though, are the Dutch. They use it for cabbage, potato and other vegetables, but also for meat, soups, stews and sauces.
Nutmeg is the characteristic flavouring of sauce Béchamel (white sauce), which despite its French name is today common to several European cuisines. Sauce Béchamel is rarely served at the table, but more often used for the preparation of baked foods, for on baking it forms a delicious, golden brown surface, especially if sprinkled with some grated cheese (e.g., parmigiano).
Lasagna is one of Italy’s most famous dishes: Flat noodle pasta pieces, stuffing (often meat sauce, ragù alla Bolognese, but also spinach or other vegetables) and often cheese are layered in a casserole, topped with a sauce and baked. Most recipes prescribe Béchamel sauce. A somewhat similar recipe from Greece is mousaka, made from an aromatically spiced ground meat sauce and vegetables, most often aubergines, also arranged in layers. The sauce used for that recipe is of Béchamel type, but also contains egg and cheese, which gives a less liquid texture and a phantastic, flavourful crust after baking.
The classical French spice mixture quatre épices (meaning “four spices”), which goes back to cooking traditions in the baroque era, contains nutmeg in combination with much white pepper (some variants use black pepper), cloves and ginger; further, optional ingredients are allspice and cinnamon.
Since quite a large fraction of nutmeg is today grown in Grenada, nutmeg has entered several Caribbean cuisines. In Grenada, it’s omnipresent, the locals even eating nutmeg-flavoured ice cream. Nutmeg is an optional ingredient in a famous Caribbean spice paste, Jamaican jerk.
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