Whole cloves - Comoros

SHORT DESCRIPTION
Cloves have been valued as a spice for centuries in Europe, North Africa, and most of Asia. They should be used sparingly, as their flavor and spiciness are dominant and hardly diminish during cooking.

USE
In African and Arabic cuisine, cloves are often used in meat and rice dishes. In Europe, cloves are mainly used in desserts, compotes, and spiced breads. Cloves are an important ingredient in Worcestershire sauce, the Chinese five-spice blend, and the North Indian garam masala.

GOOD TO KNOW
Whole cloves are cooked or steeped in sauerkraut, fish broth, roasted game, sauerbraten, roast rabbit, and large roast pork. The clove flavor is indispensable in sweet fruit soups, compotes, plum jam, and apple puree.

TASTE
Intense, strongly aromatic and sweetish smell, strongly burning taste, they leave a slightly numbing sensation on the palate.

PRODUCTION
One of the most important growing regions today is the island of Pemba, along with Zanzibar, which forms part of Tanzania. Here, the entire island is covered with clove gardens, and the whole island is said to be fragrant with the unmistakable scent of cloves. After the Second World War, clove cultivation declined sharply, to the point that cloves even had to be imported. Since the 1980s, cloves have been cultivated again in Indonesia, although little of this is actually exported.