description
Mace is the dried "lacy" reddish webbing or aril of the nutmeg seed from
the nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans, a member of the Myristicaceae family.
Nutmeg and mace have similar flavors, with nutmeg being slightly sweeter
and mace being a more delicate flavor. Mace is often used in recipes for the
bright orange, saffron-like hue it gives.
The tree from which they are produced is a small evergreen, not more than 40 feet in height, with smooth, grayish-brown bark, which is green on
the younger branches. The alternate leaves are oblong-ovate, acute, entire,
smooth, and dark-green. Nutmeg tree flowers are very small and unisexual.
Nutmeg tree fruit is smooth and yellow, each resemble a pear grooved by a longitudinal furrow.
The fruit contains a single erect seed about 1 1/4 inch long, the nucleus of which is the
wrinkled nutmeg, and the crimson, fleshy, webbed covering being the mace.
common names & nomenclature
for mace
Mace comes from the Latin maccis and French macis, both of which refer to the mace spice covering the nutmeg.
mace is also known as:
rou dou kou, macis, muscadier
common names & nomenclature
for nutmeg
The name nutmeg is from the Old French for "hard aromatic seed of the East Indies”.
nutmeg is also known as:
nux moschata, myristica officinalis, myristica aromata, myristica
