Nutmeg

Nutmeg is the spice of winter kitchens, but its oil is something more refined: warm and woody, sweet without sugar, with a dry, almost sandalwood softness underneath. It gives a composition the feeling of a hand held near a fire.

What nutmeg is

Nutmeg oil is steam distilled from the dried seed of Myristica fragrans, a tropical evergreen that also gives mace from the red lacy aril around the seed. The oil is rich in sabinene and pinene, which give its fresh, slightly terpenic top, and in myristicin, which gives its warm, sweet, spicy depth. Used with restraint it adds warmth and a woody sweetness to citrus and spice openings without ever smelling of pastry.

Where our nutmeg comes from

Ours comes from India, where nutmeg has been grown in the warm, wet spice gardens of the southwest since it was carried there from the Moluccas. The tree needs heat, shade and heavy rain, and the Indian spice coast provides all three. Nutmeg grown there gives an oil with a pronounced sweet woodiness and a fresh, clean top, less sharp than the oils of some other origins. It is a warm, rounded nutmeg, and it sits beautifully beside pepper and ginger.

How nutmeg smells

Sweet, woody and spicy nutmeg with a slight terpenic nuance. There is a clean freshness at the top, then a warm, dry sweetness that feels woody rather than edible, and a soft, lingering warmth on the skin.

Nutmeg in our chapters

• IHayalThe Crown · in the opening

  In Hayal it rounds the spiced opening, the sweet woody warmth that softens the ginger and the peppers.

• IIParadis de BleuThe Leaves · in the opening

  In Paradis de Bleu it brings a trace of warmth to the herbal opening, a note of the kitchen garden among the wild ones.

A note from the atelier

I use nutmeg as a bridge between spice and wood. It arrives with the peppers and leaves with the cedars, and it makes the passage between them feel inevitable.

Questions about nutmeg