Nutmeg, cinnamon and other ground spices
With care — Allowed by some hospitals and not others, or allowed only prepared a particular way.
In one line: Use a small grating only, or leave it out.
Nutmeg in a white sauce, cinnamon in a rice pudding, a grating of mace in a potted fish. These are small quantities of finely ground dried spice, and they are the sort of detail that separates a dish worth eating from one that is merely edible.
They are also on the wrong side of the leaflet this book follows, which lists herbs and spices under foods to avoid without distinguishing between a whole clove and a dust.
Where hospitals differ
Substantially. St George's places dried spices in the allowed tier alongside salt and vinegar. Leeds permits dried herbs and spices at stage three of its obstruction diet. The leaflet this book follows does not. So a reader in one city is seasoning a béchamel with nutmeg while a reader in another has been told not to.
The mechanical argument for allowing it is reasonable. Ground spice at a quarter of a teaspoon is not a piece of anything. The argument for restricting it is that spices can irritate an inflamed gut independent of texture, which is a different claim and one that turns up in advice about urgency and diarrhoea rather than about obstruction.
What this book does
Follows the leaflet. There is no nutmeg, cinnamon, paprika or five-spice in any recipe, and no recipe currently uses this food at all. Ground pepper is the single exception, because the leaflet allows it by name.
If your team says it is fine
Then it is, and a grating of nutmeg into any of the white sauces here would be the first thing to add. See herbs and spices.
Swaps
- Instead of Whole spices, such as cumin seed, mustard seed, cardamom pods or a cinnamon stick, use Ground spice in a small amount, or the whole spice infused into a liquid and strained out
- Whole spices keep their tough husk right through cooking, so ground spice in a small amount, or an infusion with the pieces strained out, gives the same warmth without it. Some hospitals allow dried or ground spice in small amounts, while the leaflet this book follows treats it the same as fresh herbs, so check your own trust's leaflet if you are unsure.