Generality
Mace is a plant-based food belonging to the spice branch. It is used in small doses and its function is mainly aromatic.
Other Myristica plants produce different components used both for their aroma and for some medicinal properties.
Description
The plant from which the mace is derived is an evergreen tree. It is native to Indonesia, in the Moluccas, and the Philippines; it is cultivated in exclusively tropical climates and the propagation of the plant takes place essentially by cuttings, in order to better manage and distribute the sexes. The best quality mace comes from the Banda Islands, Java, Sumatra, Celebes, Penang, Singapore, the West Indies, Zanzibar and the Maurizius Islands.
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Nutritional values (per 100 g of edible portion)
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The mace tree often reaches 10 m in height, but specimens have been identified that reach 20 m. The plant is ALL aromatic, with a gray-reddish and smooth or cracked according to age. The leaves are alternate, oval, elongated and pointed. The male flowers are pedicellated bunches, while the female ones are organized in small peaks.
Whole fruits of the M. fragrans are NOT eaten. The exocarp and the mesocarp (the peel and the pulp), after drying, are discarded, while the aril and the seed (mace and nutmeg) are further deprived of water and marketed as spices.
NOTE: the aril is an external part to the seed that grows together with this and is usually fleshy and colored (in the image at the beginning of the article, the mace is the bright red part that covers the seed).
The fresh mace (unlike the husk of hazelnuts and almonds) is NOT green and leathery, but crimson red, fleshy, translucent and with a greasy shine; the old and poorly preserved one becomes brown and opaque. By engraving the pulp, a pleasant, aromatic oil with a spicy-acrid taste must come out. The dehydrated mace is stiff, fragile and yellow-orange in color.
Chemical composition
The active ingredient of mace, responsible for the typical intense and pleasant aroma, is an essential oil (5-8% of the total weight). This is divided into two types, different in quality; the drug NOT chosen is called Separaat, while the waste is called Gruis . The essential oil of mace is obtained by distilling the envelope (aril).
Other components of the mace are: fat oil (20-35%), pigments, minerals (1.5-3.0%), water (10%), nitrogenous substances (6%), non-nitrogenous active substances (47%) and cellulose (4 %).
The original mace can be replaced by arils of other Myristicas, such as M. argentea and M. mala barica (sometimes used for the food sophistication of the original mace).
The essential oil of mace, like that of nutmeg, is used for flavoring foods, beverages and perfumes. From the medicinal point of view, it is instead used as an eupeptic (which stimulates digestion).
Any comments on the nutritional composition of the mace leave the time they find because, thanks to its strength, they use negligible quantities to say the least.
The flavor of mace is more delicate and "elegant" than that of nutmeg, and the greatest gastronomic value. In addition to embellishing different sauces and entering the composition of spice mixtures, such as curry, the mace can be grilled directly on the dishes. It is well suited to light and bright colored plates due to the orange tones it gives, a bit like saffron.
