Mace is harvested at the same time as the nutmegs and sometimes it is removed from the nutmeg by scraping with a knife, but removing it by hand is considered the better way. This is done by commencing at the base of the nut, for the reason that there the interlacing or lining becomes more expanded and at the same time flattened. In this condition it is placed on mats or trays to dry in the sunshine. The modern drier, however, is now largely used and is preferable, even when the weather is clear for a sufficient time to cure the mace, as sunshine seems to absorb some of its substantial qualities. The modern drier also prevents it from drying too rapidly. Mace, in drying, is first crimson, then blood red, but in process of drying it loses this tinge, and after a few months, when properly cured, it is of a yellowish or golden-brown color, preferred by the dealers. It is then firmly packed in bags (called by the Germans in the Straits Settlements, sok kols). The Banda mace is usually packed in one-half piculs of sixty-five pounds and in barrels or casks containing about 280 pounds each, the pressure being about equal to the weight of the mace. When driers are not used and the weather is wet, mace is dried by being smoked, care being taken not to blacken it. Sometimes the base of the mace is cut off and it is dried in double layers—a process which many think has a tendency to keep worms from working into it, but this is not true, as it, instead, furnishes a place in which they can hide.
True mace is the product of the true nutmeg, which is round and covered with single and double blades of flat and somewhat irregular smooth slits. These are slightly flexible or brittle membrane of a golden-yellow color, and, in the odor and taste, analogous to the odor and taste of the nutmeg. They are rich in fixed and essential oils and in aroma. While each is a part of the same fruit, the nutmeg and mace are entirely different in outward appearance and are separated for commercial purposes, as well as for their separate uses.
The Penang mace is most esteemed because it is flaxy and spreads. Penang exported 1,143 piculs, valued at $105,032, in 1904. The Dutch or Batavian is more fleshy and cheaper. The Singapore is inferior to both the Penang and the Dutch, while the wild or false mace from the long nutmegs is dark red and has a coarse, strong flavor, which is very different from that of the true mace.
[[5]]Myristica Malabarica, known under the name of Bombay mace, used to adulterate the true powdered mace, is much larger and more cylindrical than the arillus of the true nutmeg and has several flaps united at the apex, forming a conical structure. The anatomical structure is also different, as may be seen by the aid of a microscope. When moistened with hydrochloric acid, the Bombay mace presents the marked peculiarity of assuming a greenish color. Bombay mace may be detected by boiling the suspected samples with alcohol and filtering through a white filter; if the mace is pure the filter is stained a faint yellow, but if Bombay mace is present the filter, especially the edge, is colored red. A rather more delicate test is to add “Goulard’s”[[6]] extract to the alcoholic filtrate; with pure mace only a white turbidity is occasioned, but when Bombay mace is present a red turbidity is obtained. The reaction given by tumeric is similar, but it may be distinguished from that of Bombay mace in the following manner: A strip of filter paper is saturated with the alcoholic solution, the excess of fluid removed, and the strips drawn through a cold, saturated solution of boric acid. When Bombay mace is present the paper remains unchanged, but in the presence of tumeric it turns orange brown. If a drop of potassium-hydrate solution is now placed on the strip of paper, it causes a blue ring if tumeric be present, and a red ring if the adulterant is Bombay mace.
[5]. Tamk Bedd, G. L., Sylv. t269; Rheede, Hort., M21, iv, t5.
[6]. Pharmacographia Indica.
The myristica argentea produces a dirty-brown colored mace, and the arillus generally consists of four broad stripes which are united above and below. In selecting mace care should be taken to select the orange-colored with a transparent-like appearance. When it has a tendency to crumble to dust it is considered of poor quality. Dull-looking parcels should be avoided, as such is never genuine mace, but is obtained from concrete virtue or expressed oil of bruised or broken nutmegs.
Although pure mace has a flavor quite similar to that of the nutmeg, it has a peculiarity of its own which most people prefer. It is extensively used for medicinal purposes.