Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Mace along with all the recipes employing Mace presented on this site, with 481 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Mace recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Mace as a major wild food ingredient.

Mace is the outer skin of the fruit of the nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans that originate only from the Banda Islands of Indonesia. This tree is a member of the Myristicaceae (generally referred to as the Nutmeg family). There are about 100 distinct species of Myristica of which Papuan Nutmeg M argentea from New Guinea, and Bombay Nutmeg M malabarica from India are also used as spices. Nutmeg trees grow up to 20m tall thrive in very warm, humid climates. They need year-round water, but don't like flooding. There are both male and female type trees, both are required for pollination and fruit set. The trees produce their first crop of fruit after about 7 years and reach maturity after about 20 years.

Nutmegs bear yellowish fruit with a white pulp. This is split to reveal the seed inside. The seed itself is covered by a 'lacy' reddish covering (the arillus) and it is this arillus in dried form that yields mace. The seed within is the nutmeg. Both seed and arillus are generally sun-dried for about two months after which the arillus is removed and the seed itself is cracked, revealing the fragrant nutmeg interior.

Both nutmeg and mace have similar taste qualities, though nutmeg is slightly sweeter in taste and mace has a more delicate flavour. Mace is more expensive and tends to be used in light-coloured dishes where it imparts a bright yellow saffron-like colour. Nutmeg suits all milk-based products and is excellent grated freshly into cheese sauces. In Indian cuisine nutmeg is used almost exclusively for sweets. 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 curry powders generally include nutmeg as an ingredient. Nutmet is also a traditional ingredient in all mulled alcohols (mulled cider, mulled beer, mulled mead or mulled wine). Small quantities of grated nutmet are also used in some Idian garam masala mixes.