Drinking ham soup this morning with cloves in it and reflected on the cost of such cloves for my ham dinner Thursday and the uses of such a spice. The bottle of cloves was $9 and will last several years for sure.

 

Cloves are used in the cuisine of Asian, African, and the Near and Middle East, lending flavour to meats, curries, and marinades, as well as compliment to fruit such as apples, pears, or rhubarb.

In Mexican cuisine, cloves are best known as clavos de olor, and often accompany cumin and cinnamon.

85% of cloves’ powerful taste is imparted by the chemical eugenol; the quantity of the spice required is consequently typically relatively small. It pairs well with cinnamon, allspice, vanilla, red wine and basil, as well as onion, citrus peel, star anise or peppercorns.

Cloves are used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, and western herbalism and dentistry where the essential oil is used as an anodyne (painkiller) for dental emergencies. Cloves are used as a carminative, to increase hydrochloric acid in the stomach and to improve peristalsis. Cloves are also said to be a natural anthelmintic. The essential oil is used in aromatherapy when stimulation and warming are needed, especially for digestive problems. Topical application over the stomach or abdomen are said to warm the digestive tract. Applied to a cavity in a decayed tooth, it also relieves toothache.

source: wikipedia