Cloves

What Cloves is

A small, nail-shaped dried flower bud with an intensity out of proportion to its size — a handful is enough to flavor an entire pot of biryani or a full pan of chai. Used whole and removed before serving, or bitten into by accident, which numbs the tongue briefly.

The dried, unopened flower bud of Syzygium aromaticum, a tropical evergreen tree native to Indonesia and now grown widely in coastal India. The bud is picked by hand while still closed and dried in the sun until it hardens into the dark brown spice sold whole.

Taste profile

Intensely pungent, sweet and warmly medicinal, with a numbing effect on the tongue in any quantity — the same eugenol compound that gives clove oil its use as a dental analgesic. A few cloves carry through an entire dish; more than that turns bitter and overpowering.

Forms to buy

• Whole bud — The near-universal form; used sparingly and fished out before eating.
• Ground — Rare in savory cooking; mostly used in baking spice mixes.

Halal note

Cloves and clove powder carry no halal concern. Clove cigarettes and some clove-scented personal-care products are unrelated consumer goods and have no bearing on the culinary spice.

Dishes that use it

• Mutton Biryani — The same method as chicken biryani, but the meat sets the timing.
• Chicken Biryani — Rice and marinated chicken layered raw, then sealed and steamed together.
• Masala Chai — Tea boiled with milk, sugar and whole spices — not tea with milk added.

Cuisines

• Indian — Not one cuisine but a continent's worth, unified by how spices are handled rather than by what is cooked.
• South Indian — Rice, lentils and fermentation — a lighter, sourer tradition with almost no relation to a North Indian menu.
• Indo-Nepali — The most common restaurant format abroad: a Nepali kitchen cooking a mostly Indian menu, with momo on the side.

Other spices

• Turmeric
• Cumin
• Coriander Seed
• Cardamom
• Cinnamon
• Bay Leaf