[Sca-cooks] Mace and Must Substitute

[Stephen Bloch]

>In the past i have bought Near Eastern Sour Grape Juice to 
>substitute for verjus - rather *harsh*, but cheap and available. And 
>a couple partially used bottles sat in my fridge for over a year - 
>they didn't spoil and the flavor mellowed...

My experience has been different: after a bottle has been opened and 
left in the fridge for a few months, there's mold floating on the 
top.  This has happened to me more than once.  I haven't risked 
tasting it to see whether the mold in question was beneficial....

>First, they had packages of whole mace! I don't know what i'll do 
>with it, but it was under $2, so how could i resist? I mean, it's so 
>cthulhoid looking - the squidly diddley of spice - how charming!

I'm confused.  I thought mace was just the outer skin of the nutmeg, 
so "whole" mace would be exactly the shape (if not the color) of 
whole nutmeg.  Or if it's already been removed from the nutmeg, it 
would look like little curls of brown paper.  Nicht wahr?


Another advantage of middle eastern groceries: one can often find 
almonds, pistachios, etc. in bulk for good prices.
-- 
                                     John Elys
          (the artist formerly known as mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib)
                                 mka Stephen Bloch
                                 sbloch at adelphi.edu