I love nutmeg and mace. When I am making custard, pie, cream sauces, or barbecue sauces, I often add a these spices. You may have had eggnog with nutmeg sprinkled on top. Nutmeg, and its outer skin, mace, have a long history.
Peggy Trowbridge Filippone gives some background on mace in "Nutmeg and Mace History," published on the Home Cooking Website. Nutmeg was known in Roman times, according to Filippone, and its popularity grew over the centuries. It became so popular the Dutch went to war "just to control nutmeg production in the East Indies."
Nutmeg fruit is about the same size as peaches. The mature fruit bursts open and reveals the seed inside. This seed has an outer covering called "aril." After this covering is removed and dried it becomes mace. Filippone says mace is dried for as long as two months. It is sold ground or in strips.
Sylvia Windle Humphrey, author of "A Matter of Taste," describes mace as nutmeg's step-child, but says it has its own character. Nutmeg skin is a vivid red when it is removed from the seed. The skin turns light orange after it has been dried. Mace adds flavor to meat casseroles, soup, marinade, fruit, and cake. Humphrey's book contains recipes for old-fashioned pound cake, a carrot-potato side dish, lamb tongues (of all things), and cherry flan -- all flavored with mace.
Chicago "Sun-Times" staff reporter Lisa Donovan also writes about mace in an article titled, "Mace has a Sweet, Mild flavor of its Own." She thinks mace is a "wonderful multitasker in the kitchen" and says it is used in cream sauces, soup, muffins, and even lasagna. You may have eaten at a restaurant, tasted the food and asked yourself, "What is the secret ingredient?" Maybe it was mace.
You have to be careful with mace, however. Just like nutmeg, too much can be overpowering. If you have not used mace before, this recipe for Cherry-Orange Dessert Sauce is the perfect "test drive." You can make the sauce in minutes and use it many ways. Serve it over vanilla ice cream, angel food cake, pound cake, plain chocolate or vanilla cake, garnished with whipped cream. The sauce also adds color and flavor to trifles. Dig in!
Ingredients
1 16-ounce can pitted, dark cherries
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (approximate)
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
Method
Grate the zest from the orange and then squeeze it. Drain liquid from canned cherries into a 2-cup measuring cup and set cherries aside. Add enough orange juice to make one cup. Combine cherry-orange liquid, orange zest, sugar, corn starch and ground mace in a small saucepan. Whisk over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sauce comes to a boil and thickens. Gently fold in cherries. Use warm or chilled. Makes 4-5 servings.
Copyright 2009 by Harriet Hodgson
Harriet Hodgson has been an independent journalist for 30 years. Before she became health and wellness writer she was a food writer for a local magazine. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Association of Health Care Journalists, and the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Her 24th book, "Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief," written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from Amazon.
Centering Corporation in Omaha, Nebraska has published her 26th book, "Writing to Recover: The Journey from Loss and Grief to a New Life." The company has also published a companion resource, the "Writing to Recover Journal," which contains 100 writing prompts. Please visit Harriet's Website and learn more about this busy author and grandmother.
No comments:
Post a Comment