![]() In Dutch cuisine, nutmeg is added to vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and string beans. It is also commonly used in rice pudding. In traditional European cuisine, nutmeg and mace are used especially in potato and spinach dishes and in processed meat products they are also used in soups, sauces, and baked goods. It may also be used in small quantities in garam masala. In Kerala Malabar region, grated nutmeg is used in meat preparations and also sparingly added to desserts for the flavour. In Indian cuisine, nutmeg is used in many sweet, as well as savoury, dishes. It is also used in gravy for meat dishes, such as semur, beef stew, ribs with tomato, and European derived dishes such as bistik (beef steak), rolade (minced meat roll), and bistik lidah (beef tongue steak). In Indonesian cuisine, nutmeg is used in dishes, such as spicy soups including variants of soto, konro, oxtail soup, sup iga (ribs soup), bakso, and sup kambing. Whole nutmeg can also be ground at home using a grater specifically designed for nutmeg or a multi-purpose grating tool. ![]() Nutmeg is used for flavouring many dishes. Mace is often preferred in light dishes for the bright orange, saffron-like hue it imparts. Nutmeg and mace have similar sensory qualities, with nutmeg having a slightly sweeter and mace a more delicate flavour. Indonesian manisan pala (nutmeg sweets) Spice The first harvest of nutmeg trees takes place seven to nine years after planting, and the trees reach full production after twenty years. Air layering is an alternative though not preferred method because of its low (35–40%) success rate. Epicotyl grafting (a variation of cleft grafting using seedlings), approach grafting, and patch budding have proved successful, with epicotyl grafting being the most widely adopted standard. Because there is no reliable method of determining plant sex before flowering in the sixth to eighth year, and sexual reproduction bears inconsistent yields, grafting is the preferred method of propagation. Sexual propagation yields 50% male seedlings, which are unproductive. Nutmeg trees are dioecious plants (individual plants are either male or female) which are propagated sexually from seeds and asexually from cuttings or grafting. In the 17th-century work Hortus Botanicus Malabaricus, Hendrik van Rheede records that Indians learned the usage of nutmeg from the Indonesians through ancient trade routes. It is also cultivated on Penang Island in Malaysia, in the Caribbean, especially in Grenada, and in Kerala, a state formerly known as Malabar in ancient writings as the hub of spice trading, in southern India. The most important commercial species is the common, true or fragrant nutmeg, Myristica fragrans ( Myristicaceae), native to the Moluccas (or Spice Islands) of Indonesia. argentea, are sometimes used to adulterate nutmeg as a spice. Two other species of genus Myristica with different flavors, M. Dried nutmegs are grayish brown ovoids with furrowed surfaces. ![]() The shell is then broken with a wooden club and the nutmegs are picked out. During this time the nutmeg shrinks away from its hard seed coat until the kernels rattle in their shells when shaken. The seeds are dried gradually in the sun over a period of six to eight weeks. The spice has a distinctive pungent fragrance and a warm, slightly sweet taste it is used to flavor many kinds of baked goods, confections, puddings, potatoes, meats, sausages, sauces, vegetables, and such beverages as eggnog. Nutmeg is the spice made by grinding the seed of the fragrant nutmeg tree ( Myristica fragrans) into powder.
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