Cloves

Imagine that you are Manuel, King of Portugal, in the early 1500’s. Consumers in your country and throughout Europe are demanding greater quantities of spices. Your merchant ships travel to Mediterranean ports to do business with Arab tradesmen who have brought spices from the East and who monopolize the spice trade. You would like to break Arab domination of the spice trade to gain more control and increase profits. You send your fleets to India (1505) and East Africa (1506) to strengthen Portuguese influence. In 1511, you send an expedition to conquer Meleka, a commercial center in what is now Malaysia. Your fleets are victorious and continue east to claim the Spice Islands, the native home of the famed clove tree. The rest of the story is spice history!

The Portuguese ruled the Spice Islands throughout the 1500’s. In 1605, the Dutch took over the islands and tightly controlled clove production. In the mid 1700’s, a Frenchman, Pierre Poivre, stole some clove trees from the Spice Islands and began to produce cloves in present day Mauritius off the east coast of Africa. From there, cloves were shipped to other French territories such as Bourbon (now called Reunion) and Martinique in the Caribbean. Today, large clove producing areas continue to be islands in the Indian Ocean east of Africa such as Mauritius, Zanzibar, Pemba, and Madagascar, Brazil, and the islands of Indonesia, the original Spice Islands.

Cloves come from an evergreen tree, which grows 4.5 to 9 meters tall. All parts of the tree are fragrant, but the flower buds, called cloves, have the most fragrance. Buds must be harvested just as they turn red at the base. Then, they must be separated from their stems and laid out in the sun to dry. The buds turn a very dark brown and shrink to the form we most recognize, a nail-shaped spice approximately one-third of its original size.

Throughout history, physicians have found cloves very useful. The aromatic clove is a stimulant. It warms the body, increases circulation, improves digestion, and treats flatulence, vomiting, and nausea. It is also an antiseptic and mildly anesthetic. Oil of clove is used to relieve toothaches. Putting a clove in your mouth and keeping it near the painful area the next time your tooth aches may also provide relief.

Cloves are popular in crafts, especially for making pomander balls and potpourri (see craft section for detailed instructions). In addition, cloves are used as a spice in food or in teas. Pour boiling water over some cloves and infuse them for 10 minutes. Alternatively, make your favorite tea and add broken pieces of cinnamon sticks and whole cloves as it is steeping. Apple tea is a favorite with these spices. For a spicy iced tea, strain and pour the tea in a pitcher of ice. Drink your tea while enjoying molasses clove cookies!

Molasses Clove Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, cloves, ginger, and sugar. Beat eggs. Add eggs, melted butter, and molasses to flour mixture. Blend until smooth. Stir in rolled oats. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Makes approximately 24 cookies (Recipe adapted from The Complete Spice Book by Maggie Stuckey, p. 134).

Cinnamon Clove Punch

Dissolve 1 cup of sugar in 2 cups of water (bring to a boil to dissolve). Mix the sugar water with the following:

1 1/2 c. lemonade
4 cups cranberry juice (or cranrasberry juice)
2 cups orange juice
2 cups pineapple juice

Put 4 cinnamon sticks and 12 cloves in a cheesecloth or nylon bag and add to the pot. Simmer for an hour. Serve hot. To serve cold, add a bottle of ginger ale.