[Sca-cooks] Candying Nutmegs: Was Break the Pot

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

On Nov 1, 2009, at 2:05 AM, otsisto wrote:
>  My apologies for not following this thread but this post caught my eye.
>  The nutmeg has fruit surrounding the nut and the Indonisians candy it.
>  Could the fruit be what the recipe is calling to be candied?
>  Fruit, mace and nut
>  http://tinyurl.com/ygudxrd

Given how difficult it would be to get fresh fruit from the Banda 
Islands to Europe before the fruit rotted, i kinda doubt they're 
talking about the fruit.

I get the impression - based on academic study of the history of 
Indonesia and living there, and not on any scholarly research into 
the nutmeg trade - that since for so long nutmegs went to Europe and 
didn't stay in Indonesia (neither nutmeg nor mace features in 
Indonesian cuisine very much), well, all they had left was the fruit. 
And since they were growing so much sugar there and actually had 
access to some of that, i suspect Indonesians ended up preserving the 
fruit.

There the fruit is made into jam, or sliced and candied. It isn't 
hard to find, but it isn't commonly used either.

Gernot Katzer remarks, "The pulp of the nutmeg fruit is tough, almost 
woody, and very sour," while the text at wikipedia notes that it is 
easily bruised.

Here's another photo of the fruit around the mace around the shell 
around the nutmeg (yes, under the mace there's a shell around the 
nutmeg):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nutmeg_Zanz41.JPG
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita