I'm a bit embarrassed to ask this, but you know nutmeg...?

[Lawks]

You know when you buy whole nutmeg? And grate a bit in, instead of using ground nutmeg?

Erm... does it always come in a shell?

I've never noticed. I've always hated grating fresh nutmeg because it's so hard and none grates off. I usually end up just bunging a bit of ground in.

Last night I was fiddling and swearing and trying to grate a bit of whole nutmeg into a spinach sauce, when I noticed it was rattling. A cursory investigation and a whack with a hammer cracked the shell, and a little easily gratable nutmeg thingy inside fell out .

So, are you always supposed to crack them? Surely I've not been grating nutmeg shell into my recipes for my entire adult life?

If you have, so have I! Intrigued to hear the answer....

I'm pretty sure you grate the outside - that's what I have always done, and my mum showed me

I've never found a little nut in the middle - just grates down as a whole big nut.

i thought you grated the outside too.
well done for investigating though.
there will be mumsnetters taking hammers to nutmeg today.

does this help?

Picture is a bit small to see JKS.

I have another whole one in the cupboard. If this doesn't get resolved I might have to make a photo diary of me cracking and grating the other one for proof.

Has anyone got any whole nutmeg in their cupboard? Go and give it a rattle.

Maybe I have different nutmeg?

I have just had a look, my nutmegs don't errrr rattle!!!
I thought it was strange as I crack open nutmegs all the time because I make my own garam masala and have never come across this!

To grate nutmeg easily, use the side of the grater with the star shaped grating thingy's not the side you would use to grate for example cheese, does that even make sense?

hang on like this

Does this help

I think the bit in the middle is mace? or is that the shell?

I think the shell might be the mace like this. I have a nutmeg grinder, a bit like a pepper grinder but with a handle on the top. You put the whole nutmeg in (presumably without shell..) and it sort of grates the whole thing from one end to the other. like this

Hope this helps.

i've never bought one in a shell - where did you get it? the shell is mace, the inside is nutmeg.

go easy on it mind, it's poisonous in any quantity (like if you tipped a whole jar in something by mistake).

I found this on a website because I have had that rattling too - I think sometimes we must buy the fruit with the nutmeg inside but usually you just buy the whole nutmeg.

'Understand the makeup of the nutmeg. The nutmeg is the inside part of a yellow fruit from the nutmeg tree, namely the kernel.[1] The ripened fruit splits open to reveal a hard, black nutmeg. This nutmeg is dried for culinary usage. Mace is the inner case of the nutmeg and looks like webbing. Mace has a more delicate taste than nutmeg. '

Dont know if that helps much ....

Yep. You've got the outer shell. I have never brought this way. Actually I've never bought it. My friend about 6 years ago had a boot sale and a cute jar of nutmeg she never used that had it own grater. I'm coiming to the end and now will look out for the kernel and not the nut. Yep! Mace is the outer cage or 'aril' not the shell that you have

LIKE THIS!!!

(No mace net thingy).

So, when you buy the little Schwartz jars there's no shell then? Because those little things are hard to grate, but my newly shelled little thing practically melted through the grater.

Yes mystery solved

Wow, I have really learned something here!

maybe yours is like a freshly shelled nut and usually it's like, um, i dunno, a dried nut? i learned something too, i was just winging it with the shell/mace thing (although the poison thing is definitely true - a family friend was hospitalised for nutmeg poisoning ).