Christmas is just around the corner, and with it comes all sorts of delicious foods that we love, but for some reason never eat until it’s Christmas. One foodstuff you may see a lot of this year is cloves, but just how much do you know about them?

Cloves originally come from Indonesia, and are the dried flower buds of plants native to that region. Nowadays they are grown all over Asia and are used in many different types of cuisine, and have even become popular in British food. You may have seen whole cloves embedded in various fruits, vegetables and meats, you may even have cooked with them before, and you have definitely eaten powdered cloves.

Powdered Cloves in Spicy Dishes

Powdered cloves are traditionally used as spices in many south Asian dishes, particularly in India, Indonesia and Vietnam. The famous Indian flavour garam masala is a combination of different spices, among them powdered cloves. The British have also gotten in on the act, as one a main ingredient of Worcester sauce is cloves, giving it that nice warm aromatic taste, and lots of fusion food relies on spices such as cloves. You can easily powder cloves at home too, by buying them whole and either putting them through a grinder or smashing them with a hammer.

Whole Cloves for that Seasonal Aroma

This time of year, you are most likely to see whole cloves studded in an orange used as a decoration. This releases the aromas of both the fruit and the cloves, and fills the room with a spicy, fruity seasonal aroma. In cooking, you can also use whole cloves to stud onions and flavour a homemade sauce, or stick them in meat like ham for the Christmas dinner. Just remember to take them out afterward!