Nutmeg and Mace

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Filed Under Ingredient Guide 

Aren’t we an informed lot? :) An overwhelming majority correctly identified this fruit to yield nutmeg and mace. Thank you all for playing!

Nutmeg is the dried seed of the fruit, and mace is the reddish covering or arils of the seed. The fruits I found were really young, so the arils are not red yet.

Kerala 039

Here is the picture of a mature fruit. (Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

800px-Nutmeg_Zanz41

The fruit is called Jathikka in Malayalam, Jaiphal in Hindi and Bengali, Jayikai in Kannada, Zaaphal in Kashmiri, Jathikai in Tamil and Jajikai in Telugu.  The botanical name is Myristica fragrans.  Nutmeg and mace have similar taste qualities, nutmeg having a slightly sweeter and mace a more delicate flavor.

Growing up, we never cared about the seeds, it was the outer flesh that interested us kids. The flesh has a slightly spicy sour taste which we used to devour with some salt on the side.  The seed and the aril were discarded without a second thought! Mace is the most expensive part of the fruit. The outer flesh is also used to make pickles and chutneys in Kerala, and for jams and candies in some other parts of the world.

Geetha went out of her way to give some extra information about Jathikka.

Jaathikka , Jaathipatri( Nutmeg & Mace)
Telugu: Japtri
Origin: Molocco islands, eastern Indonesia
Portugese introduced this spice to WEST
Geenus:Myristica
Species: 100 different but M.fragrans widely cultivated
Annual world production: 10000-12000 tonnes
Culinay and herbal medicine use
Exotic preparations:
Pickle, Wine with fresh jaathika thoodu

Thank you Geetha!

More about nutmeg and mace here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutmeg



Comments

21 Responses to “Nutmeg and Mace”

  1. richa on April 10th, 2008 7:40 am

    yooohooo! i got it right ;)

  2. Happy Cook on April 10th, 2008 8:57 am

    Yeppppppppppppp :(Yes): :(Yes): for once i am correct.
    yuppiieeee. :smile: :smile:

  3. Revathi on April 10th, 2008 9:17 am

    Rightttttttt Fig is not a spice :sad:

  4. Kalai on April 10th, 2008 10:30 am

    Woohoo! Nice to be right for once! :)

  5. Reena on April 10th, 2008 11:19 am

    :razz:

  6. musy on April 10th, 2008 12:02 pm

    He he, so i did identify this one right :-D :party:

  7. Nangil Girl on April 10th, 2008 6:01 pm

    Whohoo!! I actually guessed it right!! :cool:

  8. Manasi on April 10th, 2008 6:50 pm

    Good thing I did not guess.. wud have made a bloomer!!!! :oops:

  9. rachel on April 10th, 2008 7:02 pm

    :smile:

  10. Niveditha on April 10th, 2008 8:50 pm

    You should definitely send the second picture for the ‘Click’ event this month.It’s awesome

  11. sia on April 10th, 2008 11:52 pm

    i am loving ur ‘gussing games’ sig :)

  12. Arundathi on April 11th, 2008 12:11 am

    So glad I didnt attempt a guess! Thats a beautiful photo!

  13. sushma on April 11th, 2008 1:30 am

    :(Yes): yepeeeeee i got it right..

  14. Uma on April 11th, 2008 7:14 am

    :shock: What? I am right? Yay! la la la! for the first time! So I can guess right sometimes. :party:

  15. Anuzi on April 11th, 2008 7:28 am

    Ok so I was soooo intimidated by my own lack of knowledge…I didn’t even bother guessing. But I learned something new :smile:

  16. Swati on April 11th, 2008 10:19 pm

    sig.. you have time to blog on vacation… u rock lady…

  17. sra on April 11th, 2008 11:32 pm

    I’ve had the mace jam, I too may have got this right if I’d been around to play! :smile:

  18. Raaga on April 12th, 2008 9:48 am

    I like nutmeg sometimes, but can’t take mace…nice pics :-)

  19. Shantanu on April 13th, 2008 9:44 pm

    OMG, looks lovely. And no, I wouldn’t have been able to identify it. :razz:

  20. Swati Jain:Sugarcraft India on April 14th, 2008 9:00 am

    Lovely pictures Sig..As always!! :smile:

  21. rida on May 13th, 2008 2:28 am

    :party: thank you. :razz:

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