The dried flower buds of a tropical tree from the Moluccas. Cloves are intensely aromatic, sweet and numbing, thanks to eugenol, and a few go a long way in both sweet and savoury dishes.
What it is¶
Cloves are the unopened flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, an evergreen tree of the myrtle family that grows to 10 metres or more. The buds grow in clusters and are picked by hand when they turn from green to pink, just before they open, then sun-dried until dark brown and hard. Each clove has a tapering stem and a rounded head formed by the unopened petals, surrounded by four pointed sepals. The English name comes, via French clou, from Latin clavus, a nail.
Origins and history¶
For most of history, cloves grew only on a handful of small volcanic islands in North Maluku, including Ternate, Tidore, Makian, Moti and Bacan: the original Spice Islands. They were traded across Asia in antiquity; Chinese sources of the Han period describe courtiers holding cloves in their mouths to sweeten their breath before speaking to the emperor, and cloves reached Rome.
Europeans fought over the clove trade from the sixteenth century. The Portuguese and Spanish came first; the Dutch East India Company took control in the seventeenth century and tried to enforce a monopoly by concentrating cultivation on Ambon and destroying trees elsewhere. The monopoly was broken in the 1770s when the French administrator Pierre Poivre succeeded in smuggling seedlings to Mauritius, from where cloves spread to Réunion, the Seychelles and East Africa. In the nineteenth century the Omani sultans of Zanzibar built a vast clove industry on Zanzibar and Pemba, worked largely by enslaved people. Today Indonesia is the largest producer, and much of its crop is smoked in kretek, clove-flavoured cigarettes.
Flavour and aroma¶
Cloves are among the most aromatic of all spices, owing to eugenol, which makes up the large majority of their oil. The flavour is warm, sweet and pungent, with a fruity, slightly bitter, medicinal character and a numbing effect on the tongue; eugenol has long been used by dentists. The strength is the main thing to understand: cloves easily overwhelm other flavours, and a dish that tastes of cloves has usually had too many.
In the kitchen¶
- Whole, in small numbers: two or three cloves flavour a stew, stock or pot of rice for four. Stud them into an onion (oignon clouté) for bread sauce, béchamel or stock so they are easy to remove.
- Baked ham: score the fat in diamonds and stud each with a clove before glazing.
- Sweet dishes: apple pie, Christmas pudding, mince pies, gingerbread, poached pears and mulling spice for mulled wine and cider.
- Blends: garam masala, chinese five spice, quatre epices, mixed spice, pumpkin spice, baharat, ras el hanout, berbere and many curry powders.
- Indian and Sri Lankan cooking: fried whole at the start of biryani, pulao and meat curries.
- Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and pickles: cloves are a standard ingredient; see pickling spice.
💡 How much ground clove?
Ground clove is extremely strong. ⅛–¼ tsp is usually enough for a cake or a pot of stew for four. Three or four whole cloves equal roughly ¼ tsp ground.
A common mistake is leaving whole cloves in a dish without telling anyone: biting into one is unpleasant. Count them in and count them out.
Buying and storing¶
Good cloves are plump, dark reddish-brown and oily: press one with a fingernail and a little oil should appear, or drop one in water, where fresh cloves float head-up or sink, while stale, dried-out ones float on their sides. Whole cloves keep for two to three years in an airtight jar away from light; ground cloves fade within about six months. See storing spices.
Substitutes¶
- Allspice: contains eugenol and has a similar warmth; use about the same amount, or a little more.
- Mixed spice or pumpkin spice in baking.
- A little nutmeg and cinnamon together in spiced drinks.
Pairs well with¶
Ham, pork, lamb, beef, onions, apples, oranges, pears, red cabbage, red wine and chocolate; cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, star anise, bay leaf, black pepper and green cardamom.
Health and safety¶
Cloves are safe in culinary amounts. Clove oil is highly concentrated eugenol and has traditionally been dabbed on sore teeth, but it is an irritant to the skin and mouth, and swallowing it can be dangerous, particularly for young children; poisonings have been reported. Keep essential oils out of reach of children and do not take them internally. Eugenol may also affect blood clotting, a consideration for concentrated products rather than food.