Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Nutmeg
Jacob Hill purchased one nutmeg from the Colden Store on this day, 250 years ago. In the prior eight months, Colden sold over forty nutmegs.
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| Nutmeg seeds. Image courtesy of Britannica.com |
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This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.
Webster dedicated a lot of type to 'nutmeg' in his 1828 dictionary:
"noun (Latin... But it may be questionable whether the last syllable in English, meg, is not from Latin, mace, the bark that envelops the nut.) The fruit of a tree of the genus Myristica, growing in the isles of the East Indies and South Sea. The tree grows to the height of thirty feet, producing numerous branches. The color of the bark of the trunk is a reddish brown; that of the young branches a bright green. The fruit is of the kind called drupe, that is, a pulpy pericarp without valves, containing a nut or kernel. The covering of this nut is the mace. The nutmeg is an aromatic, very grateful to the taste and smell, and much used in cookery."
Nutmeg was believed to have medicinal and hallucinogenic uses, but it was primarily used as a spice in colonial kitchens.
A single nutmeg lasted a long time, as the purchasers at the store were very seldom repeat customers.
A nutmeg was usually sold as a single nut for one-half shilling, or about an hour's wage for a laborer. Four of the sales were in ounces at three shillings per ounce or the equivalent of six nuts.
ColonialSense.com lists 71 colonial recipes using nutmeg. They include meats, vegetables, fish, puddings, soups, and sauces.
Nutmeg was a necessity in most rum punches. The recipe for the punch supposedly served by Martha Washington included grated nutmeg.
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| Image courtesy of BespokePost.com |
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