Her breath is like honey spiced with cloves
Her mouth delicious as a ripened mango ;Srzgarakarika
Nightshade cloves, hemlock groves, the cauldron starts to boil
-Elvenking (Witches Gather)
Originally shared by Jon “the chef” Hole
Cloves 丁香, كبش قرنفل, लौंग, Céngké, கிராம்பு
Used plant part
Flower buds. The buds are harvested shortly before the flower would open.
Sensory quality
Strongly aromatic and very intensive fragrance; fiery and burning taste.
Etymology
The name clove, as well as Spanish clavo, Catalan clau, Portuguese cravinho and Tagalog clovas, ultimately derives from Latin clavus nail (because of shape resemblance).
The word made its way into English via Old French clou.
The word clove is related to the verb cleave (which is what you can do with a nail) and therefore also to clove as in a clove of garlic.
Cloves are named nail spice in other languages, too; for example, take Russian gvozdika [гвоздика] which comes from gvozd’ [гвоздь] nail.
Cloves are an ancient spice and, because of their exceptional aromatic strength, have always been held in high esteem by cooks in Europe, Northern Africa the greater part of Asia.
Trade between the clove island Ternate and Imperial China goes back at least to the Han dynasty, some 2500 years ago; a much older archeologigal find at an Mesopotamian site in Northern Syria is of doubtful nature.
In China, cloves were not only used for cooking but also for deodorization; anyone having an audience with the Han emperor had to chew cloves to prevent any undesired smell.
Arab traders brought cloves to Europe in in late antiquity; they were very expensive.
The clove is the only spice that is smoked more than eaten.
You are probably familiar with the sweet odor of kretek, the clove cigarettes from Indonesia.
More than half the world's clove production is ground with tobacco to make kretek.
When the Europeans, in the Age of Exploration, finally found the clove producing islands, they took enormous interest in securing a constant spice supply:
The few tourists visiting the small island of Ternate (9 km diameter) will be surprised to find crumbling remnants of about 10 fortresses, built by Portuguese, Spanish, British and finally Dutch soldiers in the 16.th and early 17.th century.
During all of the 17.th century, the Dutch kept an effective monopoly in the clove trade, which guaranteed high profits to them.
It is impossible to mention all cuisines where cloves are used; they are much loved by the Chinese, play an important rôle in Sri Lankan cooking, are extensively used in the Moghul cuisine of Northern India (see black cumin), enjoy high popularity in the Middle East and many Arab countries and are a common spice in Northern Africa.
In all these countries, they are preferred for meat dishes; frequently, rice is aromatized with a few cloves.
In Ethiopia, coffee is often roasted together with some cloves in the so-called coffee ceremony.
Cloves have less use in Europe, where their strong flavour is not so much appreciated.
They are much used for special types of sweets or sweet breads, but especially for stewed fruits (together with cinnamon).
Plain rice is often flavoured one or two cloves.
In France, cloves often go into long-simmered meat stews or hearty meat broths.
In England, they are most popular in pickles.
Many spice mixtures contain cloves. They form an essential part in the Chinese five spice powder.
The taste of the famous Worcestershire sauce (also spelled Worcester), an Indo-British contribution to international cuisine, is markedly dominated by clove aroma.
The sauce is composed of several spices (besides cloves, garlic, tamarind, paprika or chiles are most frequently found), fish extract, soy sauce, treacle, vinegar (or lemon juice) and salt.
Folklore says that sucking on two whole Cloves without chewing or swallowing them helps to curb the desire for alcohol
Her breath is like honey spiced with cloves, Her mouth delicious as a ripened mango Srzgarakarika
#Spices #Cloves
