Nutmeg in, Nutmeg out

Nutmeg - it really adds just the right extra "something something" to certain dishes - eggnog, cooked spinach dishes, anything with a baked ricotta-like cheese... It doesn't offer any zing, zap or pow to the dish - it's more like a subtle earthiness that brings it all together maybe? Whatever it does - it's good!

I think mom gave me my first nutmegs years ago, telling me you don't buy the pre-ground stuff. It's pricey, and loses flavor in no time - a senseless purchse. Instead you buy whole nutmegs, keep 'em in a jar, and just grate what you need as you need it - that's fresh nutmeg flavor! And with rasp or microplane graters becoming all the rage thanks to the Food Network over the last few years - it's so much easier to get a super fine grating on nutmeg into your recipe.

You can see here what was left of my old nutmegs sitting along side today's purchase from Mr Bulky's less than 10 minutes from here (very handy!). They were something like $12.48/lb - so they certainly don't SOUND cheap! But a little nutmeg goes a long way, and in their whole format, they last a loooong time (while I don't know how long I've had the ones you see on the plate, it's embarrassingly long!). I just checked the receipt - that pile of new nutmeg came to exactly $2.00 (what're the odds!?) - I'll get many gratings (and many years!) worth of great flavor out of them...

Just as soon as I took these pictures I pitched the old ones and put the new ones in the old chicken boullion jar mom gave me for nutmeg. Ready to start cooking!