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I recently made this truffle ravioli dish, it was an easy enough recipe, but I was confused about one thing: it calls for 'musk'. I didn't know what this was, my research only turned up musk melon, which I think is probably different. So, I skipped it.

So, my question is, what is 'musk' as used in this recipe, and what sort of flavor would it have imparted to the dish?

Stephie
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Tom Hennen
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3 Answers3

19

It's nutmeg.

The author of that blog is from Switzerland, so I imagine that term is used there, but I had never heard used culinarily until now. I Googled "Grated Musk", and still had to look around to be sure. Thanks for teaching me something.

EDIT As of an hour after the question was posted: Click the "Grated Musk" link now! This question is now the top result :) You're famous, Tom!

Jolenealaska
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  • I Googled that too - what'd you find that convinced you? The things saying nutmeg smells like musk? – Cascabel Feb 15 '15 at 19:27
  • @Jefromi The definition of nutmeg from the Free Dictionary, and the images. – Jolenealaska Feb 15 '15 at 19:27
  • @Jefromi And here we go: http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/nutmeg – Jolenealaska Feb 15 '15 at 19:32
  • That's kind of bizarre. It doesn't seem to be being used much of anywhere (that blog is the only usage I quickly found), and the OED (at least whatever part that's freely available) doesn't have it as a definition of musk. They don't usually have synonyms that obscure there! – Cascabel Feb 15 '15 at 19:36
  • @Jefromi I'm thinking the same thing, how weird, but I'm positive that we're right. :) I translated nutmeg into all of the official languages of Switzerland (except Romansh, Google doesn't do that one), and they all come back to variants of "musk". – Jolenealaska Feb 15 '15 at 19:43
  • Yup agreed it's right, just surprised it was in that thesaurus. I looked around on Google Books for a while and didn't really manage to find any usage that really looked like it meant nutmeg, and words that no one uses don't usually make it into dictionaries! – Cascabel Feb 15 '15 at 19:47
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    German native here: definitively nutmeg (=Muskat) – Stephie Feb 15 '15 at 20:59
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    Just because it came up: Rumantsch Grischun (4th language in Switzerland): "nusch-mustgat". "nusch" is "nut" and "mustgat" is "Muskat" or the"-meg" in "nutmeg" – Stephie Feb 15 '15 at 21:32
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    Awesome that this question is the top result. SE is definitely succeeding at making the internet a better place. – Tom Hennen Feb 16 '15 at 14:12
  • Muskatnuss, Herr Müller! Muskatnuss! :) – rackandboneman May 06 '15 at 22:47
15

I think it's nutmeg.

The author of that blog is from Switzerland, and nutmeg is muscade in French and Muskat in German. It's also something that'd taste fine in the dishes she uses it in.

Cascabel
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2

This is rather late in the discussion, but a recipe from Martha Washington's cookbook calls for "a little muske or ambergreece." Ambergris is from a sperm whale and similar in odor to musk. So, if it is an old recipe, it probably was musk from a deer.

Corrine
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