This week’s spice is nutmeg, which is sold as a dried “nut,”
and served freshly grated. During the holidays, we grate it over eggnog,
and whipped cream on pumpkin pie. Nutmeg can be used as
flavoring for sweet and savory dishes, including squash soup, creamy spinach,
vegetable dishes, cakes and cookies, and bread pudding.
Myristica fragrans
is in the Myristicaceae family, and native
to Grenada in the Caribbean, southeast Asia, northern Australia, and the Banda
Islands in Indonesia. It thrives in a hot moist climate, in rich, well-drained
soil. It is also cultivated in Malaysia, and southern
India.
 |
| Botanical
illustration of Myristica fragrans
from Koehler’s Medicinal Plants (published before 1923 and public domain in the United States). |
Nutmeg is harvested from the fruit of an evergreen tree that
grows to 70 feet high in the wild. Its leaves are alternate, oblong-lanceolate to
5 inches, veined, and glaucous on the underside; flowers are small and unisexual,
with a lobed corolla; propagation is from seeds and grafting. The tree is dioecious,
meaning that male and female flowers grow on separate trees. The fruit is yellow,
to 2 inches long, and splits into two halves. M. fragrans produces two spices – nutmeg from the seed pod, and
mace from the red aril that surrounds the seed (100 pounds of nutmeg yields one
pound of mace). The brown seed is dried and sold as a “nut” or ground; mace is dried
and ground.
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