Mace Substitute: Best Swaps and Amounts

Mace is the dried aril of the nutmeg fruit, the red, net-like covering wrapped partly around the seed of Myristica fragrans.¹² The seed inside becomes nutmeg, so one fruit gives both spices.³ That makes nutmeg the obvious stand-in. The catch is that the sources we found disagree on whether you need more nutmeg than mace or less, so this page shows the disagreement and gives a starting point.

Quick answer

What mace is doing	Best substitute	Starting amount, per 1 part mace	Treatment
Seasoning a pale sauce, potted meat, seafood or other savory dish	Nutmeg	1 part, then add to taste (up to 2)	Disputed
Warm spice in cakes, doughnuts, fruit pies or custard	Nutmeg	1 part, then add to taste (up to 2)	Disputed
Warm spice in baking, when you have no nutmeg	Allspice	1/2 part	Attributed
Whole blades in a pickle, stock or poaching liquid	A small piece of whole nutmeg	One chip or a few gratings	Method
One spice among many in a curry or spiced dish	Garam masala	1/2 part, savory dishes only	Method

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship, with the source named.
Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. We show each one, do not average them, and give a cautious starting point.
Method: we found no published ratio. We give a direction and a starting point, and say so.

One figure on this page comes from a kitchen test (America’s Test Kitchen’s). The rest are merchants’ guidance.

What mace brings to a dish

Sources describe mace’s uses differently. Britannica lists sauces, pickles, and meat and fish dishes; PROSEA says it is preferably used in savory dishes, pickles and ketchups; FAO lists sweet foods, cakes, doughnuts and fruit pies, and says mace is particularly used to season seafood.¹⁴⁵

Its oil overlaps with nutmeg’s but is not the same. In a Grenadian study summarized by FAO, mace oil always carried a higher share of aromatic ethers, such as elemicin, than nutmeg oil from the same tree, and taste panels could tell the two oils apart.⁶ The Spice House describes mace as more piquant and somewhat less sweet than nutmeg.⁷

If mace is seasoning a savory dish or a baked good

1. Nutmeg

America’s Test Kitchen says nutmeg and mace have similar flavor.⁸ The question is how much to use, and here the sources point in opposite directions. America’s Test Kitchen says mace is much stronger than nutmeg.⁸ McCormick says nutmeg has a slightly more intense flavor and fragrance than mace.⁹

Ratio (Disputed):

Source	Nutmeg for 1 teaspoon mace	Basis
America’s Test Kitchen⁸	2 teaspoons (“double the amount”)	Derived from its tests in the other direction: 1/2 teaspoon mace best replaced 1 teaspoon nutmeg in a Bundt cake and a béchamel
McCormick⁹	Less than the mace amount: “reduce the recipe amount considerably and add more if needed”	Guidance; its example line pairs 1/4 teaspoon mace with 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, so it gives no clear figure

The Spice House does not give a figure for this direction, though it calls mace “a touch sharper” than nutmeg.⁷

Starting point (Method): Start with the same amount of nutmeg as mace, taste, and add more, up to double, if the dish seems flat. If you can’t taste as you go, as in a cake batter, use the same amount. This is our judgment between two sources that disagree, not a measurement.

Expect a small difference in savory dishes. In America’s Test Kitchen’s béchamel, a few tasters found the nutmeg version slightly more peppery.⁸ Nutmeg is also darker, which, in our judgment, can show as specks in a white sauce; grate it very finely.

2. Allspice

Britannica says allspice is so named because its flavor resembles a combination of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.¹⁰ Its oil is mostly eugenol, 50 to 80 percent in PROSEA’s figures,¹¹ so it adds a clove note mace does not have. McCormick says allspice offers a peppery sweetness similar to mace but a much stronger flavor.⁹

Ratio (Attributed): McCormick says to use half as much allspice as mace and add more as needed.⁹

3. Cinnamon

Cinnamon’s bark oil is dominated by cinnamaldehyde,¹² so it brings warmth and sweetness but not mace’s aroma. McCormick’s mace page names cinnamon only as a spice that pairs well with mace, not as a replacement.⁹ Its cinnamon page groups mace with nutmeg and allspice as “more powerful” spices than cinnamon.¹³

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found for cinnamon in place of mace. Because McCormick rates mace the more powerful of the two, start with an equal amount of cinnamon and taste. Use it only in sweet dishes.

4. Pumpkin pie spice

McCormick’s blend lists cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice, in that order.¹⁴ It brings some nutmeg, led by cinnamon.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Start with half as much as the mace called for, because the cinnamon and ginger will dominate, then taste. Sweet dishes only.

If whole mace blades are steeping in a liquid

Whole blades go into pickling liquids, stocks and poaching syrups and are lifted out before serving. That is common practice rather than a sourced quantity.

Ratio (Method): No published equivalent exists between a mace blade and whole nutmeg. Use a small chip broken from a whole nutmeg, or a few gratings, per blade, and taste the liquid before adding more. Strain it out at the end.

If mace is one spice among many

1. Garam masala

Great British Chefs counts mace among the spices commonly used in garam masala, and says recipes vary widely by region and by cook.¹⁵ Many blends will have none, so check the label.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Start with half as much garam masala as the mace called for, in savory dishes only, since it brings cumin, pepper and other spices with it.

2. Ginger or cardamom, as a last resort

Ground ginger’s bite comes from gingerols,¹⁶ and cardamom’s oil is mostly 1,8-cineole and α-terpinyl acetate.¹⁷ Neither shares mace’s chemistry. They add warmth, not mace’s flavor.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found for either. Start with a small pinch, about a quarter of the mace amount, and taste.

A note on safety

Recipe amounts are safe, and that holds for any of the swaps above. Mace carries the same aromatic ethers as nutmeg, in a higher share of its oil,⁶ and PROSEA attributes nutmeg’s hallucinogenic properties to safrole, myristicin and elemicin.⁴ The National Capital Poison Center advises keeping nutmeg and its relative mace out of children’s reach.¹⁸ We found no poison-center dose figure for mace itself. For nutmeg, the Tennessee Poison Center cites 15 to 20 g of ground nutmeg as the dose at which psychogenic effects have been reported, and the Missouri Poison Center gives 5 to 30 g as the range people take to get high.¹⁹²⁰ See too much nutmeg for the full picture.

What isn’t known

No study compares the flavor strength of mace and nutmeg directly. America’s Test Kitchen’s tests ran in one direction only (mace replacing nutmeg), in one cake and one sauce.
America’s Test Kitchen and McCormick disagree on which spice is stronger, so even the direction of the adjustment is unsettled.
No published ratio was found for cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, garam masala, ginger or cardamom in place of mace.

“Mace”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
G.B. Marcelle, Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section I, FAO, 1995. fao.org · Reference work ↩
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Introduction, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩
M. Flach and M. Tjeenk Willink, Myristica fragrans, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section VII: Utilization of products, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩
Production, handling and processing of nutmeg and mace, Section VI: Composition and constituents, FAO. fao.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²
“Mace Spice Explained”, The Spice House, 2024. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²
“Substutions for Mace”, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
McCormick Kitchens, “What is Mace: Uses, Substitutes and Recipes”, McCormick, 2025. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
“Allspice”, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩
D. Sulistiarini, Pimenta dioica, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Cinnamomum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
McCormick Kitchens, “About Cinnamon: Uses, Pairings and Recipes”, McCormick, 2025. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩
McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice product page, McCormick & Company. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩
“How to make garam masala”, Great British Chefs. greatbritishchefs.com · Publication ↩
Sutarno, Hadad and Brink, Zingiber officinale, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Wardini and Thomas, Elettaria cardamomum, Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩
Rose Ann Gould Soloway, “Kitchen surprises and cautions”, National Capital Poison Center. poison.org · Reference work ↩
Nena Bowman, “Nutmeg, a Potentially Uninvited Holiday Guest?”, Tennessee Poison Center, 2020. vumc.org · Reference work ↩
“Nutmeg Abuse”, Missouri Poison Center, 2022 (updated 2026). missouripoisoncenter.org · Reference work ↩

Mace Substitutes, and Why Nobody Agrees on How Much Nutmeg to Use