Ehuru (gourdnutmeg) - not peeled

Ehuru, also called pèbé or Jamaican nutmeg, is an important ingredient of pepper soup, a specialty from Nigeria, but also lends itself to many other applications. Ehuru is a completely different experience from our trusted 'real' nutmeg.

This is an expiring product. The same applies to peeled ehuru.

The gourd nutmeg (in Nigerian ehuru, in Cameroon pèbé) is the nut of the tree that occurs naturally in an area stretching from Sierra Leone to Angola. It has always been an important spice in Africa, until the emergence of Asian nutmeg, with which it has great similarities.

Ehuru is the seed of the Monodora myristica, a tree from the Custard apple family. Like many other trees in this family, myristica bears fruits that can be enormous (up to 40 cm) and are full of seeds. The seeds are embedded in a yellow pulp, which is used in savory and sweet dishes.

Ehuru combines excellently with citrus notes, which makes it suitable for use with chicken dishes. Ehuru is indispensable in traditional Nigerian dishes, such as pepper soup. The ehuru note is used as follows.

It is not a substitute for nutmeg, which is gaining popularity in Africa at the expense of gourd nutmeg. That's a shame, because it has its own strong taste and aroma, which best suits African cooking traditions. Such as in Kondres, a dish of plantain or Ewu, stewed goat, but by far the most famous application is in Pepper soup.

Use whole notes

Method 1: Cut open the nut, exposing the loose inside. Grind or pound it.

Method 2: Roast the nuts whole and grind them - whole - in the blender or a coffee mixer.

Use shelled nuts

Gourd nutmeg is not grated like regular nutmeg, just crushing it or grinding it finely with a mortar is sufficient.

Smell and taste

The dried seeds contain 5-9% essential oils: α-phellandrene, α-pinene, myrene, limonene and pinene. They give the seeds a slightly sweet but woody flavor and a peppery pungency reminiscent of 'real' nutmeg. Nevertheless, it is too easy to blindly regard the two types of nutmeg as each other's replacements. Both notes have their own characteristic.

Usage

Gourd nutmeg is part of the spice mixture Mbongô tchòbi, in which, in addition to this ehuru, natural mbongo (Afromomum citratus), chili pepper (Capsicum) and garlic nut (Afrostyrax lepidophyllus) are used, in addition to the scorched bark of the garlic tree, Scorodophloeus zenkeri.

Features

• 100% berries of the Monodora myristica
• origin: Cameroon

Assortment

• available in glass and stand-up pouch (no test tubes)
  
• glass jar contains 45 grams
• stand-up pouches with a capacity of up to 30 to 150 grams
• larger quantities on request

Gift packaging

• the jar is available in a tasteful gift packaging, consisting of a cube box filled with black tissue paper
• for an overview of our gift packaging, please refer to the gift packaging section

Save:

• keep your ehuru in closed packaging
• preferably store in a dark, dry and cool place
• best before November 2024 (11/24)
• this expiration date is an indication