148 SPICES 



CHAP. 



USES 



Mace is chiefly used as a spice, occasionally only in 

 medicine, and then more as a flavouring agent. It 

 contains about 8 '2 per cent of a volatile oil, consisting 

 for the most part of macene. The oil is colourless and 

 very fragrant, and is quite unlike that of the nutmeg 

 seed. The percentage of oil varies in different samples. 

 It is given as 6|- per cent (Herrings and Co.), 8*2 per 

 cent (Fliickiger and Hanbury), and as much as 11 and 

 16 per cent by Schimmel. 



There is always a good demand for it, and it usually 

 costs more per pound than the nutmeg itself. 



THE NUTMEG 



The husk and mace having been removed, the seed 

 in its thin, brittle outer coat, the testa, is to be dried, 

 to be prepared for export as the nutmeg of commerce, 

 and after drying the testa is to be removed before pack- 

 ing. The testa is not broken off till the seed is dry, or 

 it would run a great risk of being attacked by beetles. 



The seeds are often merely dried in the sun, being 

 exposed in trays of basket-work every day till quite dry. 

 But in Banda and other places, where large quantities 

 of nutmegs are handled at one time, fire is used to 

 dry them. The nuts are spread on gratings about 8 

 ft. above a slow charcoal fire, in a drying-house built 

 for the purpose, and exposed to the fire for from six 

 weeks to two months. Dr. Oxley preferred to have the 

 stages 10 ft. above the fire, and urges that it is best 

 to commence by drying the seeds at first by exposure 

 to sun heat for an hour or two a day in the morning, 

 and gradually increasing the length of the exposure,, 

 till in eight or ten days they rattle in the shell, and 

 then transfer tliem to the drying-house to be finished. 



Care must be taken not to raise the temperature 

 too high, or the seed will shrivel and be less valued by 

 the dealers. 



