3 Favorite Christmas Spices

We all use spices and herbs when we cook during the year. At Christmas time, , however, certain spices, and certain herbs just make the holidays come to life. They add a different taste to our foods and smells to our rooms. You’re no doubt familiar with the smell of freshly baked pumpkin pie, what holiday does it make you think of?

Smell isn’t everything, though. How about the taste of hot chocolate, egg nog, holiday cookies or candy canes? Our childhood Christmas memories are likely full of the aromas of certain spices or herbs.

Spices and herbs produce the smells of the holiday and spark special memories. There are many customs, legends and memories created by these spices and smells. They add flavor and aromas to the season; normal dishes have an extra festive flair when you put just the right spice or herb in them. Not only do the spices and herbs smell wonderful, but they also have many proven health benefits.

Here are three you may like and use.

Myrrh. This, of course, was given to the baby Jesus. Myrrh comes from Commiphora Myrrha Tree resin. It is another spice often used during church services. This spice was worth more than frankincense in the ancient world. It is used as an oral antiseptic

When a tree wound penetrates through the bark and into the sapwood, the tree bleeds a resin. Myrrh gum, like frankincense, is such a resin. When people harvest myrrh, they wound the trees repeatedly to bleed them of the gum. Myrrh gum is waxy and coagulates quickly. After the harvest, the gum becomes hard and glossy. The gum is yellowish and may be either clear or opaque. It darkens deeply as it ages, and white streaks emerge..

Cloves: Buds of the clove plant are often used for baking and cooking, and putting in drinks and teas, and in wonderfully smelling decorations of the season. It has anti-viral and anti-bacterial qualities and can help in digestion.

Cloves are used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, and western herbalism and dentistry where the essential oil is used as an anodyne (painkiller) for dental emergencies. Cloves are used as a carminative, to increase hydrochloric acid in the stomach and to improve peristalsis. Cloves are also said to be a natural anthelmintic. The essential oil is used in aromatherapy when stimulation and warming are needed, especially for digestive problems. Topical application over the stomach or abdomen are said to warm the digestive tract. Applied to a cavity in a decayed tooth, it also relieves toothache.

Nutmeg. Often used in baking, cooking, drinks and teas, nutmeg also helps settle and relax nerves.

Nutmeg and mace have similar sensory qualities, with nutmeg having a slightly sweeter and mace a more delicate flavour. Mace is often preferred in light dishes for the bright orange, saffron-like hue it imparts. Nutmeg is used for flavouring many dishes, usually in ground or grated form, and is best grated fresh in a nutmeg grater.
Indonesian manisan pala (nutmeg sweets)


In Indonesian cuisine, nutmeg is used in various dishes, mainly in many spicy soups, such as some variant of soto, konro, oxtail soup, sup iga (ribs soup), bakso and sup kambing. It is also used in gravy for meat dishes, such as semur beef stew, ribs with tomato, to European derived dishes such as bistik (beef steak), rolade (minced meat roll) and bistik lidah (beef tongue steak). Sliced nutmeg fruit flesh could be made as manisan (sweets), either wet, which is seasoned in sugary syrup liquid, or dry coated with sugar.

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