Spices, Their Histories: Valuable Information for Grocers :: NUTMEG AND MACE Where the Nutmeg Tree Grows Yield of Nuts and

NUTMEG AND MACE Where the Nutmeg Tree Grows Yield of Nuts and

NUTMEG AND MACE Where the Nutmeg Tree Grows--Yield of Nuts and Mace and How Prepared for the Market--Uses in Commerce

The nutmeg tree, known to botanists as Myristica frangrans (sweet smelling) is a native of the Malay archipelago. The tree, which in the Banda isles grows to the height of 50 to 60 ft., and in the Straits to 30 to 40 ft., resembles the pear tree in the shape of its leaves and fruit. Its flowers are like those of the lily of the valley in form and size, but are pale yellow and exceedingly fragrant. There are male and female flowers, the nutmegs being obtained from the latter. It is only when the tree is about 6 or 8 years old that the female tree can be distinguished from the male, and of the latter only a few are allowed to remain for fertilizing purposes, the rest being cut down. The nutmeg tree continues to yield from 70 to 80 years after reaching maturity (8 years). Each tree on an average will produce 10 lbs. of nutmegs and 1½ lbs. of mace annually. The fruit is yellowish, edible drupe, about the size of a peach; it splits into halves when at maturity—about 9 months from the time of blossoming—exposing a single seed with a thin, hard shell, surrounded by a fibrous substance of a crimson color, which, when dried and shelled becomes the nutmeg. The young drupes, when young and tender, are often preserved like jam and are considered the most aromatic and delicious of conserves. Altho the nutmeg tree has ripe fruit upon it at all seasons, there are three principal periods of harvesting, viz: July, when the fruit is most abundant, though it yields thin mace; November, when the mace is thicker, though the nutmegs are smaller, and March, when both mace and nutmegs reach their greatest perfection—but as this season is dry the production is not great.

The usual method of gathering in the Straits is to collect the ripe nuts that have fallen on the ground. In the Banda islands, the fruits are gathered in small, neatly-made, oval bamboo baskets—holding about 3 fruit—at the end of a long bamboo stick, which prevents bruising, the baskets being opened for about half their length on one side, and furnished with two small prongs projecting from the top, by which the fruit stalk is broken, the fruit falling into the basket. After the pulp—which is about ½-in. thick, whitish in color, and tough like candied peel—has been removed the mace is stripped off by hand. The shell of the fruit is very hard and cannot be broken without injury to the kernel. To overcome this they are put into receptacles with fine mesh bottoms, and dried over a slow fire—being turned from time to time—until the kernel rattles freely in the shell, a process which takes about 6 or 8 weeks. This also kills any weevil which may be at work in them. They are then carefully cracked by placing them on a sort of drumhead made of raw-hide and striking them with a board or mallet, when the shells fly off into pieces. Great caution is needed in shelling, for if too hard a blow be struck it makes a black spot on the nutmeg, which affects its value considerably. After being steeped in salt water several times and again dried they are sorted according to size and soundness—130 to 140 to the pound are the lowest priced, 75 to 80 the highest, and larger nuts are sold at special prices. The sorting is done by hand, and nothing but sound, perfect nuts are supposed to be shipped. The broken and wormy ones are used in manufacturing “nutmeg butter,” or, as it is commonly but erroneously called, “mace oil.” They are now limed. There are two methods of liming in vogue—the dry and the wet. In the dry process, the nuts have dry lime powder rubbed over them, either by hand or shaking in barrels. In the wet process, the nuts are put into newly-slacked lime and then spread out to dry, or they are dipped into a kind of lime-pickle, thick as syrup, made of calcined-shells and salt water. After being covered with this mixture they are dried. The process of liming originated with the Dutch, with a view to preventing the germinating of the seeds, for which purpose they were formerly immersed for three months in milk of lime. Again it is claimed that liming preserves the nuts against the attacks of maggots and a particular kind or beetle by stopping up their breathing and chewing apparatus. A preference is still manifested for limed nutmegs.

As nutmegs are now seldom shipped by sailing vessels, but by steamers, thus saving the long-time voyage, there is no reason why they should not come unlimed, and then the differences in their natural complexions and range of variations would become familiar and easily recognized. The liming process hides many imperfect or corky nuts; nuts which have been riddled with worm holes are “stopped” with a paste made of flour, oil and nutmeg powder and then mixed with the sound ones. Occasionally this paste is moulded into false nutmegs. Besides this, nutmegs are frequently robbed of part of their essential oil by distillation in alcohol—a process called “sweating”—and yet sold as entire nuts. A small quantity of boracic acid will accomplish the same purpose as lime, and Paris white and barytes will serve to mask the identity as well as the defects. A good nutmeg should have no worm-holes, be full of oil and cut firm like a piece of wood, and if a pin is thrust into one the oil should ooze out on its being withdrawn.

The Penang nutmegs, which are generally not limed, are considered the best, altho some prefer the Banda or Batavia, and after these the Singapore. There is also a demand for an elliptical-shaped nutmeg of rank flavor, first called long nutmegs, but now known as Macassars. Another kind of nutmeg from New Guinea, and known in Germany as “horse nutmeg,” is from the species Myristica Argentea. It is of a long and narrow shape. In these the arellus or mace furrows are less marked and their odor is not so delicate as that of the true nutmeg.

There are many kinds of wild or inferior nutmegs, such as: American Jamaica, or calabash nutmeg (M. monodora), of the custard-apple family, bearing a large pulpy fruit containing aromatic seeds. Brazilian nutmeg (cryptocarya moschata) a tree of the laurel family, producing nutmegs of an inferior quality. The nut is longer than the true species and is sold under the name of long nutmeg. California nutmeg, a tree of the pine family, called also stinking nutmeg or stinking yew, from the disagreeable odor of the leaves and wood when bruised and burned, and yielding a fruit resembling true nutmegs. Clove nutmeg, a Madagascar tree of the laurel family, the fruit a pungent kernel resembling the true nutmeg and used as a spice. Peruvian nutmeg, a large tree of the monimiad family, yielding an aromatic fruit. From Borneo a wild, soapy nutmeg and mace (M. fatua) are often palmed off as the true kinds. There is also the Sante Fe nutmeg (Motoba) from Columbia, S.A., and Ackaway nutmeg, a spice grown in Guiana, the fruit of Acrodiclidum camard. Another species, the M. sebefira, is a common tree in the forests of Guiana, north Brazil, and up into Panama. It is utilized principally for the oil extracted from the nuts, obtained by macerating them in water, the oil rising to the surface, and as it cools skimmed off. Ackawi nutmegs, used mainly as a cure for diarrahoea and colic. All these, while resembling somewhat the true nutmegs and sometimes foisted on dealers, are of very little real value.

Mace

When the mace, a bright-red membraneous substance, is removed from the nut it is pressed flat between blocks of wood and left to dry until it has acquired the right color. The preparation of mace for the market requires experience rather than technical knowledge. If packed too green it is liable to mold, and is subject to attacks from insects, which render it valueless in commerce. On the other hand, if it becomes too dry it loses its vitality and also crumbles into powder when packed. Packers frequently sprinkle the mace with salt water, which makes it more pliable and at the same time prevents attacks from insects.

We may here state that nutmegs are divided into two varieties: The green, which are long and in which the mace only partially covers the nut; is darker in color and inferior in flavor and aroma; and the Royal, which furnishes the finest and best mace, firm, thick, flexible and oily, and entirely envelopes the nut. As with the nutmeg, mace is sometimes deprived of its essential oil, and mixed with wild mace or other flavorless matter. Myristica Malabarica, known under the name of Bombay mace, used to adulterate the true powdered mace, is much larger and more cylindrical than the arillus of the true nutmeg and has several flaps united at the apex, forming a conical structure.

Products—Candied nutmeg and mace, nutmeg fruits in vinegar or salt, preserved nutmeg fruits, and nutmeg or mace essence made from the essential oil of nutmegs (not mace) and rectified spirits. An essence of mace is also made from 6 oz. mace and 2 pints cologne spirit, macerated for a couple of weeks, expressed and filtered thru paper. “Nutmeg butter”, “butter of nutmeg,” or mace, “concrete oil of nutmeg,” or “expressed oil of mace,” as it is variously called, is obtained by subjecting the nutmeg or mace to a great heat and then squeezing or pressing it in heavy presses. This substance is of a green color of the consistency of tallow and of a pleasant smell. A pound of nutmegs will make 3 ozs. of this oil, but a transparent volatile oil is obtained by distillation. It evaporates rapidly on exposure to air. When cold it becomes somewhat spongy and has a marbled or mottled appearance. It becomes hard with age and is exported in small bricks, 10 in. by 2½ in., wrapped in palm leaves. It is known under several names, as nutmeg butter, balsam of nutmeg, concrete oil or the mace oil of commerce, and as Banda soap, sometimes made from the distilled nutmeg leaves, counterfeited by using a foreign fatty substance as palm oil, nut, wax and animal fat, boiled with powdered nutmeg and flavored with sassafras, which gives it the right color and flavor. Uses—Nutmegs, besides their use as a spice or condiment, are used to relieve sleeplessness when opium fails and chloral is not advisable. For diarrhoea, half a drachm in milk is an effective cure. Butter of mace is used as a liniment and embrocation for rheumatism and is also a favorite medicine for low stages of fever with Hindoo doctors.

For ground nutmeg, all the faulty, broken, moldy, worm-eaten and wild nutmegs are often used.

A little of the history of mace and nutmegs: It has generally been believed that neither the nutmeg or mace were known to the ancients. Nutmegs and mace were imported from India at an early date by the Arabians, and thus passed into western countries. Masudi, who appears to have visited England in 916–920 A.D., pointed out that the nutmeg, like cloves, arcca nut and sandalwood, was a product of the eastern isles of the Indian archipelago. The Arabian geographer, Edrisi, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, mentions both nutmeg and mace as articles of import into Aden. They are also among the articles on which duty was levied at Acre in 1180. About a century later another Arabian author, Kozwim, expressly named the Moluccas as the native country of the spices under notice. One of the earliest references to them in Europe occurs in a poem about 1195, by Petrus D’Ebulo, describing the entry into Rome of the Emperor Henry VI, previous to his coronation in 1191. By the end of the 12th century both nutmeg and mace were found in northern Europe, even in Denmark, as may be inferred from the allusions to them in the writings of Harpestring. In England, mace, though well known, was a very costly article, its value between 1284 and 1377 being about 4s 7d per lb., while the average price of a sheep during the same period was about 1s 5d, and of a cow 9s 5d. It was also dear in France, for in the will of Jeanne d’Evreux, queen of France, in 1372, 6 ozs. of mace were appraised at the rate of 8s 3d per lb. In the middle of the 18th century, the Dutch, with the object of monopolizing the trade in nutmegs, destroyed all the trees in all the Moluccas islands, excepting Banda. Nature did not, however, sympathize with such meanness. The nutmeg pigeon, found in all the Indian islands, did for the world what the Dutch had determined should not be done—carried the nuts, which are their food, into all the surrounding countries, and trees grew again and the world had the benefit. In order to keep up the price, the surplus stock was burned up each year by certain unscrupulous men, as is proposed to do at the present day with the surplus stock of Brazilian coffee. In 1760, they burned at Amsterdam three such immense piles of nutmegs and cloves that one writer says: “Each of which was as big as a church.”

This account of nutmeg would not be complete without “Connecticut Nutmegs.” Some 90 years ago Frederick Accum startled England with his book “Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poison,” and a sort of pure food hysteria passed thru the country similar to that caused by the boric acid investigation here. But he was eclipsed by a person who declared that the makers of wooden shoe-pegs in Connecticut were making oats and nutmegs from the discarded wood of sawmills. He asserted they were not only made, but used as food thruout the country. Thus was Connecticut christened the Nutmeg State, a name which it has retained even unto this day.

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