Mace vs. Nutmeg: Differences and How to Substitute

Mace and nutmeg grow together. Nutmeg is the dried seed kernel of Myristica fragrans, and mace is the dried aril, the bright red, lacy covering wrapped partly around that seed, so they taste related and can stand in for each other. The tricky part is the amount: the sources that have tested or advised on the swap can’t agree on which one is stronger. America’s Test Kitchen found mace much stronger and uses half as much;¹ McCormick says nutmeg is slightly more intense.² And the two differ more than you might expect: mace has almost no fat, and taste panels could tell the two oils apart.³

Side by side

	Mace	Nutmeg
Part of the fruit	The aril around the seed	The dried seed kernel
Tree	Myristica fragrans, Myristicaceae, native to the Banda Islands in Maluku	Same
Color and forms	Red when fresh, turning orange-yellow as it cures in the dark (the red pigment is lycopene);⁴ sold as whole “blades” or ground, and ground is more common	Sold whole for grating or pre-ground
Essential oil, share of the spice	4 to 17 percent³	5 to 15 percent³
Essential oil, per 100 g	About 10 g⁴	About 5 g⁴
Fixed oil (fat)	Virtually absent, per FAO’s text³	Substantial; its main component is trimyristin³
Aromatic ethers	Always a higher share of the oil than in nutmeg oil from the same tree (Grenadian samples)³	Lower share³
World production	About 3,000 tonnes a year⁴	About 17,000 tonnes a year⁴
Price, one retailer, 14 Oct 2026	The Spice House ground mace: $18.29 for 2.3 oz, about $7.95/oz⁵	The Spice House ground nutmeg: $9.79 for 2.4 oz, about $4.08/oz⁶

The oil ranges come from compiled samples, so don’t merge them. The production figures are PROSEA’s undated estimates, and the price row is a single merchant on a single day, with the per-ounce figures by our math. The mace page’s own metadata showed a lower price, $16.49, than the one displayed, so think of the gap as roughly double, not an exact number.

Where the flavor difference comes from

Nutmeg has a distinctive pungent fragrance and a warm, slightly sweet taste. The best evidence that mace really is different, not just a paler nutmeg, is FAO’s summary of a Grenadian study. Mace oil always had a higher share of aromatic ethers than nutmeg oil from the same trees, elemicin was the main aromatic ether in both, and taste panels could tell the two oils apart. The authors linked the taste difference to those ethers, but that’s their suggestion, not something they showed.³

Mace also has almost no fat. FAO’s text says fixed oils are virtually absent from mace, while nutmeg’s fixed oil is mostly trimyristin.³ (One FAO table lists a fat figure for mace that contradicts its own text. We go with the text.)

Which is stronger? The sources disagree

Source	What it says
America’s Test Kitchen, substitution test	Mace is much stronger than nutmeg¹
America’s Test Kitchen, baking-spice guide	Ground mace tastes like “a more pungent nutmeg”⁷
The Spice House, blog	Mace is more piquant and somewhat less sweet; “a touch sharper”⁸
The Spice House, ground-mace product page	Mace has a subtler, mellower flavor than nutmeg⁵
McCormick	Nutmeg has a slightly more intense flavor and fragrance than mace²

Only America’s Test Kitchen reports a test. The Spice House says opposite things on two of its own pages. We haven’t picked a side.

Can one stand in for the other?

Yes. Each is the other’s closest substitute. The amount is the part people argue about.

Mace in place of nutmeg

Ratio (Disputed):

Source	Mace per 1 teaspoon nutmeg
America’s Test Kitchen (tested in a Bundt cake; held in a béchamel)	½ teaspoon¹
The Spice House	1 teaspoon, but start with a bit less⁸
McCormick	1 teaspoon (its example: ¼ teaspoon for ¼ teaspoon)²
Healthline	1 teaspoon⁹

America’s Test Kitchen also noticed that the brands it checked recommended anywhere from ¼ teaspoon to nearly ⅞ teaspoon of mace per teaspoon of nutmeg.¹ Starting point: start with half as much mace, taste, and work up toward an equal amount.

Nutmeg in place of mace

Ratio (Disputed):

Source	Nutmeg in place of mace
America’s Test Kitchen	Use double the amount¹⁷
McCormick	Nutmeg is more potent: reduce the amount considerably and add more if needed²

Starting point: start with an equal amount of nutmeg and go up to double, tasting as you go. If the recipe steeps whole blades in a liquid, a few gratings or a small chip of whole nutmeg can stand in. Full detail is on mace substitutes and nutmeg substitutes.

How each is used

Mace is paler, which makes it handy in light sauces where flecks of nutmeg would show. The sourced uses:

	Mace	Nutmeg
Savory	Sauces, pickles, and meat and fish dishes (Britannica); savory dishes, pickles and ketchups (PROSEA); seafood (FAO)	Dairy-based savory dishes such as quiche and creamed spinach (America’s Test Kitchen)
Sweet	Cakes, doughnuts and fruit pies (FAO)	Spice cake (America’s Test Kitchen); eggnog, ice cream and milk pudding (FAO)
Drinks		Obligatory in Grenadian rum punch (FAO)¹⁰
Blends	Among the spices commonly used in garam masala, which varies widely by region¹¹	Included in some garam masala recipes (garam masala)

Storage

The two keep differently. FAO says ground mace keeps better than ground nutmeg because it has so little fixed oil.¹⁰ For nutmeg, buy whole. A 2025 Milk Street test found ground nutmeg faded within months of opening, while even a year-old whole nutmeg held up well.¹² General extension guidance gives whole spices 2 years and ground spices 1 year,¹³ but none of these figures was measured on mace. More on how to store nutmeg.

Safety

Mace oil carries a higher share of aromatic ethers than nutmeg oil.³ One of them, myristicin, is metabolized in the body to MMDA, a compound with hallucinogenic properties, according to the Tennessee Poison Center.¹⁴ The National Capital Poison Center says these spices aren’t dangerous used as recommended, and advises keeping nutmeg and mace out of children’s reach.¹⁵ We didn’t find a poison-center dose figure for mace itself. The nutmeg figures are on too much nutmeg.

What isn’t known

America’s Test Kitchen’s kitchen test is the only tested ratio, and it covered mace replacing nutmeg, not the reverse.
We didn’t find a published shelf-life figure for mace.
The price comparison is one merchant on one day. We didn’t find a dated market price series.
You’ll often hear that mace loses flavor faster than nutmeg. The only source that addresses it, FAO, says ground mace keeps better than ground nutmeg.

Substitutions for Mace, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
What is Mace: Uses, Substitutes and Recipes, McCormick, 2025. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section VI: Composition and constituents, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Flach and Tjeenk Willink, Myristica fragrans, PROSEA, via Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Mace, Ground, product page, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Ground Nutmeg, product page, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩
Getting to Know: Baking Spices, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²
Mace Spice Explained, The Spice House, 2024. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
Katey Davidson, “8 Great Substitutes for Nutmeg”, Healthline, 2019. healthline.com · Publication ↩
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section VII: Utilization of products, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²
How to make garam masala, Great British Chefs. greatbritishchefs.com · Publication ↩
“Kitchen Insider: Great Grated Nutmeg”, Milk Street, 2025. 177milkstreet.com · Publication ↩
Anna Martin, “Add a Little Spice to Your Life! Part II”, University of California Cooperative Extension, 2002. ucanr.edu · Reference work ↩
Nena Bowman, “Nutmeg, a Potentially Uninvited Holiday Guest?”, Tennessee Poison Center, 2020. vumc.org · Reference work ↩
Rose Ann Gould Soloway, “Kitchen surprises and cautions”, National Capital Poison Center. poison.org · Reference work ↩

Also drawn on

Myristica fragrans Houtt., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace and their culinary uses, Introduction, FAO. fao.org
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace and their culinary uses (G.B. Marcelle, 1995), Section I: The plant and the environment, FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. fao.org
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace and their culinary uses, Section III: Post harvest handling, FAO. fao.org
Nutmeg (Britannica Editors, updated 17 Aug 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
Mace (Britannica Editors), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com

Mace vs. Nutmeg: One Fruit, Two Spices, and a Dispute Over Which Is Stronger