Allergy to nutmeg is rare and even though it has nut in its name, it’s not actually a true nut. Nutmeg is actually a spice and comes from the same tree that mace is produced.
You can read more about nutmeg in a previous blog post “Nutmeg – another nutty problem? or just innocent food?”.
What do nutmeg and mace look like?
This picture shows what nutmeg looks like.
It almost looks like a bike helmet or like some kind of poisonous alien egg.
Very odd looking plant.
The vivid red fibrous stuff that seems to cling like a creeping ivy to the seed is mace. This is removed and ground up to make the spice mace. The seed or core, under the mace is the nutmeg. This is also ground up into the spice we know today as such a popular Christmas spice. You can also eat the fleshy fruit from the outside.
This picture is from the Guardian website so if you read that, at the end of this blog post, you’ll be able to see a larger picture.
Comments on my previous nutmeg blog post prove that quite a few readers have an allergy to nutmeg, or a child that reacts to it. So at this time of year, if you suspect you are allergic, or are avoiding it, to be safe, you need to watch out for food and drink containing this festive spice.
If you’ve ever had a packet mix or homemade mulled wine you may have unwittingly consumed nutmeg. So if you had no adverse reaction you might be OK to eat it. If you’re at all unsure, don’t take a risk, ask your doctor if you can get tested, although allergy blood tests are not 100% reliable.
However if you think you are sensitive to nutmeg avoid mulled wine.
Fancy making your own mulled wine?
It’s difficult to avoid nutmeg totally during the festive season unless you make all your Christmas food yourself. If you’d like to try making your own nutmeg free mulled wine its quite easy to do without using any nutmeg. I’ve stolen this recipe from Jamie Oliver himself.
What you’ll need to make Jamie’s mulled wine:
- 2 clementines
- peel of 1 lemon
- peel of 1 lime
- 250g caster sugar
- 6 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 fresh bay leaves
- 1 whole nutmeg (leave this out if you’re allergic to nutmeg)
- 1 whole vanilla pod, halved
- 2 star anise
- 2 bottles of Chianti, or other Italian red wine
How to make Jamie’s mulled wine, in his own words:
This is dead easy to make and tastes like Christmas in a glass. It’s a lovely celebration of those traditional festive spices like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. If you’ve got your own favourite spices, then feel free to add those to the pot too. Let everything cook away and warm up gently so the flavours have time to mingle with the wine. I like to leave my mulled wine ticking over on a really low heat and just ladle some into glasses as and when guests pop in.
Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I’m doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It’s important you do make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol.
When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and both bottles of wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.
Download Jamie Oliver’s Mulled wine recipe here.
I will leave you with a fascinating link detailing the history of this most rarest of spices, “Consider nutmeg” from The Guardian online.
I just wanted to warn anyone out there who might not be aware that nutmeg can be in mulled wine. Stick to drinks you know. And to those of you who can eat nutmeg – enjoy the mulled wine!
Never really crosses your mind to check wine for nut allergy issues. Great tip.
I know, alcohol can be a bit of a hidden trap. Almond and cashew are used to make some liquers too, some of the Bailey’s type drinks contain cream, and gin can contain all sorts of ingredients, none of which are ever mentioned on the bottle, almond can be one of them. I can actually consume nutmeg and coconut fine without any reaction, despite blood test showing as positive. I do have a nut allergy, mainly to peanuts, cashews and hazlenuts but all other nuts show as bad on blood tests. I haven’t knowingly eaten any other nuts – too scary to contemplate, but it’s an interesting subject, since peanuts aren’t really nuts and some nuts are really tree nuts or seeds, coconut is a fruit and nutmeg is a spice. I’m also allergic to coriander so Christmas is a nightmare – EVERYTHING that’s free from nuts and dairy contains coriander anyway!