Nutmeg Uses: From Béchamel and Spinach to Eggnog and Rum Punch

In Western kitchens nutmeg is mostly a baking spice, but its savory side runs deep. It’s the signature flavoring of béchamel and something of a classic with spinach, and it turns up in sausages, onion soup, eggnog, Yemeni coffee blends and Grenadian rum punch, where FAO calls it obligatory.¹ The amounts are usually small. Grate it fresh when nutmeg is the only spice in the dish; in a heavily spiced pie, the jar is fine. For grating, amounts and timing, see cooking with nutmeg.

At a glance

In sauces

Béchamel. Nutmeg is the signature flavoring of béchamel, where the only spices are nutmeg and ground white pepper. Emeril Lagasse’s béchamel uses a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg for 2 cups of milk.³ That pinch is a good sense of scale for any white sauce, including the base of a gratin, lasagna or mac and cheese.

Cheese. Nutmeg sometimes flavors cheese dishes, fondue among them.

With vegetables

• Spinach. Spinach and nutmeg are something of a classic. McCormick and America’s Test Kitchen both name creamed spinach.
• Potatoes and carrots. McCormick suggests scalloped potatoes and glazed carrots.
• Cabbage and other vegetables. Dutch cooks put nutmeg on cabbage, potatoes and other vegetables, and in meat, soups, stews and sauces.
• Pumpkin and squash. The Food Hero curried pumpkin soup, published on MedlinePlus, uses ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg.¹¹

ATK adds quiche to the dairy-based savory dishes that take nutmeg.⁵ You’ll also see nutmeg suggested for broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potatoes. Those are reasonable pairings, but we didn’t find a named source for them.

In meat dishes and soups

Sausages, other meat products and soups are among nutmeg’s uses. In Arab countries, Iran and northern India, nutmeg and mace show up in delicately spiced meat dishes. In French onion soup, Bernard Laurance seasons the onions lightly with salt, a little pepper and nutmeg.⁶

You’ll read that nutmeg is traditional in Italian sausages, gnocchi and pasta sauces. We didn’t find a source for those specific dishes.

In desserts and baking

In most countries grated nutmeg goes into confectionery in small amounts. In Western cooking it’s most popular in cakes, crackers and stewed fruits.

• Custards and dairy desserts. Nutmeg’s dairy uses include eggnog, ice cream and milk pudding. In Grenada, Katzer writes, nutmeg is so common that people eat nutmeg-flavored ice cream.²
• Pumpkin pie. Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, printed in 1796, spices a “pompkin” pie with mace, nutmeg and ginger.⁸
• Breakfast. The Food Hero French toast from Oregon State University Extension uses ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg.¹² See French toast spices.
• Fruit. In Milk Street’s grating test, nutmeg went into banana bread and over fresh mango, and freshly grated won both times.¹³ Stewed fruits fit here too.

You’ll sometimes see nutmeg listed as a jam ingredient. Katzer does describe an Indonesian jam, but it’s made from the fleshy fruit around the nutmeg seed, not flavored with the spice.²

In drinks

• Eggnog. One of nutmeg’s dairy uses.
• Grenadian rum punch. FAO says nutmeg is obligatory.¹
• Haitian cremas. Claudy Pierre’s recipe in Table Magazine uses 2 teaspoons of grated nutmeg.⁹
• Hawaij for coffee. The Yemeni coffee blend is a powder of ginger, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg. See hawaij.
• Hot cocoa. The Nosher’s hawaij hot cocoa adds a pinch of nutmeg.¹⁴

In spice blends

Fresh or ground for these uses

Milk Street’s tasters preferred freshly grated nutmeg in every test and found that ground nutmeg faded within months of opening.¹³ America’s Test Kitchen says grinding your own matters most when nutmeg is the only spice; in heavily spiced foods, preground is fine.⁵ So grate it for béchamel, eggnog and custard, and don’t sweat it in a pumpkin pie spice. More on fresh vs. ground nutmeg.

Safety: how much is too much

The amounts in all of these uses are small. The National Capital Poison Center says nutmeg isn’t dangerous when used as recipes recommend, and advises keeping nutmeg and mace out of children’s reach.¹⁹ Poison centers give different intoxication thresholds, so here are both, not an average:

Tennessee says symptoms usually show up 3 to 8 hours after eating it.²⁰ A pinch in béchamel or a quarter teaspoon in a pot of soup is far below either figure.³¹¹ If a dish tastes of too much nutmeg, see too much nutmeg.

Not yet measured

• Whether nutmeg suits broccoli, cauliflower or sweet potatoes better than other vegetables. We didn’t find a named recipe.
• A typical amount per serving across savory recipes.

Related

• Nutmeg, cooking with nutmeg and how to store nutmeg
• Nutmeg substitutes and too much nutmeg
• Mace vs. nutmeg, allspice vs. nutmeg, cinnamon vs. nutmeg and nutmeg vs. cloves