Some hold that the spice produces a learned-flavor reaction

March 25, 2024 4:23 AM

"Dune - Melange Spice" is about attempting to create a spice blend mimicking the flavor of the geriatric spice described in Frank Herbert's Dune. It discusses flavor profile, descriptions in the novel, and coloration: "There are accounts in Herbert’s later novels of the spice giving off a blue glow, or of the sand where a spice eruption had taken place being a deep purple color. I really like the idea of that, visually, but as it’s complicated enough to get the flavor right, let’s just focus on that for the time being." It's from The Inn at the Crossroads, the noted fantasy cookery website (previously).
posted by cupcakeninja (28 comments total)

It needs psilocybin, no? Avoid bad mushroom flavors though.

I suppose smoked DMT maybe provides a better analog, probably includiong duration, but not possible here, pharmahuasca last way too long.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:58 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: 1 Tbs. finely grated jaggery
posted by chavenet at 5:07 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]

Some hold that the spice produces a learned-flavor reaction. The body, learning a thing is good for it, interprets the flavor as pleasurable—slightly euphoric.

Ah, so it's really just coffee.
posted by capricorn at 5:12 AM on March 25 [9 favorites]

Over 800k words (in the original six books). One vague description of flavor. It's almost as if Frank Herbert didn't like to eat. (Will Shortz definitely doesn't like to eat, as shown by the vast range of missing food words in Spelling Bee). They should have sent a poet (Catherynne Valente's descriptions of food in The Orphan's Tales are quite evocative).

Also if you want a blue spice, why not use blue turmeric? I guess if you want glowing blue, you have to use Cesium-137, which probably doesn't taste good (although maybe it does? Heavy water reportedly tastes sweet.)
posted by novalis_dt at 5:32 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]

Compare our new store brand, Geriatric Melange, to the more expensive Old Spice!
posted by zamboni at 5:54 AM on March 25 [41 favorites]

I always imagined it as an extremely peppery but Christmassy spice, sort of a more colorful Pfeffernuesse flavor or a classier Red Hot.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:26 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]

did someone say GINGER SPICE
posted by lalochezia at 6:42 AM on March 25 [3 favorites]

I'm imagining clove for some reason. Guess I should read the book though to fully comprehend this.
posted by Czjewel at 6:45 AM on March 25

Will Shortz definitely doesn't like to eat, as shown by the vast range of missing food words in Spelling Bee

Sam Ezerzky, surely. [Though he does allow a gallimaufry of outré stews like CALLALOO and BURGOO]
posted by chavenet at 7:15 AM on March 25

Butterfly pea blossoms could give the color change while still remaining edible (red onions or red cabbage seem less ‘melange’ to me but I’m open minded)! I am a fan of adding radioactive elements for that je ne sais quoi
posted by rubatan at 9:07 AM on March 25

I get so tired of everyone bringing out the Pumpkin Spice around Fremen holidays.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:10 AM on March 25 [9 favorites]

@Genji, don’t knock it until you bump it. It’s probably a truer approximation than the FPP recipe.

Myristicin is the chemical compound in nutmeg that causes nutmeg intoxication. It also occurs naturally in the essential oils present in certain plants, including parsley and dill.

When a person consumes myristicin, the body metabolizes it, forming 3-methoxy-4,5 methylenedioxyamphetamine (MMDA). MMDA has hallucinogenic properties, and it is the effects of MMDA on the central nervous system that lead to the nutmeg high.

posted by rubatan at 9:23 AM on March 25 [3 favorites]

Chemistry of Spice Melange (from Dune) - Periodic Table of Videos
posted by Rhaomi at 9:42 AM on March 25

People. People. Come on. If you want to try spice melange, you can just stop by your local grocery.
posted by phooky at 9:55 AM on March 25

Melange being a five dollar word for mix.
posted by zamboni at 10:38 AM on March 25

So, Spice is just a really hot curry powder, except it’s thrown up by worms?
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:18 AM on March 25

I feel like Spice should have a subtle component that reflects the hot, sandy, almost flinty smell of the desert it comes from. But I'm not sure what you could add to get that.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:49 AM on March 25 [3 favorites]

I think any Mélange approximate, along with pumpkin pie spice, has got to have some Sá Sùng (dried peanut worms) in it.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:00 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

I remain convinced that Herbert got the "Spice Melange" name from a trip to Canada and seeing a dual English/French labelled jar of Spice Mix / Epice Melange, but I don't have any real proof of that.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:10 PM on March 25 [4 favorites]

Melange being a five dollar word for mix.

Or, you know, the normal French word for "mix".
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:10 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

Accents have semantic value. In English, if you say melange instead of mix, you are being fancy. If you write mélange instead of mix, you’re inserting a French word.
posted by zamboni at 12:21 PM on March 25 [3 favorites]

I’m not enough of a Dune fan to recall the term “geriatric spice,” so it evoked other ideas. Posh, Ginger, and Sporty probably could join the Raging Grannies at this point.
posted by eirias at 2:33 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

So, in the French editions is it Epice Mix?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:16 PM on March 25 [4 favorites]

You have to consume an awful lot of myristicin for the hallucinogenic effect to kick in. Like, uncomfortably close to the LD50 for something that's commonly dosed out of nutmeg powder of unknown freshness and quality.
I usually just take enough to be drowsy and spacey and thirsty (~0.1 g grated nutmeg per kg bodyweight) and it's quite pleasant for long-haul flights (encourages sleep and hydration) or any other time when you have nothing particularly urgent or important to do for 24-36 hours.
posted by ngaiotonga at 6:58 PM on March 25

I like to be enveloped in a heady fog of frankincense when I'm finding the golden path or folding space. It's more psychoactive than most people realise and pairs well with both cannabis and LSD. Those with certain religious conditionings can find the fragrance unsettling but they are missing out on something special.
posted by neonamber at 7:13 PM on March 25 [3 favorites]

So, in the French editions is it Epice Mix?
Royale with Cheese
posted by briank at 12:30 PM on March 26 [2 favorites]

except it’s thrown up by worms?

That should be blue throw-up by worms.

Herbert's ecology bits still seem relevant because the field was already mature back then. Genetics and pharmacology - not so much.

All relatively.

There is an interesting (to me) link to Actinomycetes: The Antibiotics Producers [pubmed], weird-assed slow growing (and difficult to culture) "bacteria" that make really oddball small molecules in really cool novel ways to make shapes that "regular" amino acids can't. That kill bacteria in really novel (ie., difficult to become resistant to) ways.
posted by porpoise at 9:51 PM on March 26 [1 favorite]

Melange being a five dollar word for mix.

Or, you know, the normal French word for "mix".

"Melange is the geriatric spice"

Is just another way of saying:

"Variety is the spice of life"
posted by HiroProtagonist at 7:34 PM on March 29 [1 favorite]