Mondo Knows Facts

Mace is the lacy coat of the nutmeg

The crimson aril around the seed dries to an amber spice with its own flavour On the tree, the nutmeg seed sits inside a fruit wrapped in a red net like aril called mace. Workers peel it away, flatten it and dry it until it turns brittle and amber, keeping it separate from the nut inside. Mace tastes warmer and more delicate than nutmeg, and it was once the more valuable of the two. It sits in Mondo's food collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: mace, nutmeg, spices

Mace is the lacy coat of the nutmeg: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
The crimson aril around the seed dries to an amber spice with its own flavour. The figure is taken from Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a food fact?
Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.