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Cloves

Flowers and buds

Cloves

Syzygium aromaticum

Dried nail-shaped flower buds with an intense, sweet-numbing aroma; used whole or ground in small amounts.

Also called: clove, laung, karanfil, whole cloves

  • Warm & sweet
  • Pungent & sulphurous
  • Very mild
Buying & storing125 recipes

Photo: Challiyan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0-1.0)

Flavour and aroma

warm, sweet, numbing, medicinal in excess. Sweet, hot, slightly bitter and numbing.

Heat
Very mild
Forms
whole, ground

How to use it

  • bloom in fat · Tadka (tempering) technique

    Fry 3–6 cloves in hot ghee for 15–30 seconds, until they swell, at the start of pulao, biryani or curry.

  • dry roast · Spice roasting (dry-roasting) technique

    Roast with other whole spices over low heat for 1–2 minutes before grinding garam masala.

  • infuse · Simmering technique

    For dhungar (smoking), put a live coal in a small bowl inside the pot, drop on a clove and a little ghee, and cover for 2–3 minutes.

  • Whole spices fried in ghee for biryani and pulao
  • Garam masala and five-spice
  • Studding hams and onions for stocks
  • Gingerbread, mulled drinks and fruit compotes
  • Pickles and chutneys

Identifying good quality

Dried flower buds 1–2 cm long: a reddish-brown stalk topped by a round head. Good cloves are oily, plump and have intact heads. Dry, headless cloves are often spent.

  • Not to be confused with Marathi moggu: Marathi moggu buds are larger and lack the strong clove scent.

Origin and history

Origin: The Moluccas (Maluku Islands), Indonesia.. Grown and used: Grown in Indonesia, Madagascar, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Sri Lanka and southern India..

Cloves were traded from the Moluccas to India, China and the Mediterranean for well over two thousand years, and the Portuguese and Dutch fought for control of the trade. In South Asia they are a base of garam masala and are fried whole for pulao and biryani.

Well documented

In masalas, pastes and sauces

Recipes with cloves

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