16 Fragrant Recipes Featuring Cloves

Hot Buttered Rum Biscotti
Photo:

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Thom Driver

Cloves contribute lots of warming flavor in sweet and savory recipes alike. From main dishes like pork rib roast with sweet onion puree to desserts such as gingerbread trifle and buttered rum biscotti, these are the best of Food & Wine's recipes featuring fragrant cloves. Plus, try your hand at making our circulation-promoting mulled wine in the style of traditional Chinese medicine when the weather turns cold and dry.

01 of 16

Clove and Cider-Glazed Ham

Clove-and-Cider-Glazed Ham
© Con Poulos

For entertaining, TV chef Carla Hall glazes a spiral-cut ham with apple cider, brown sugar, mustard, bourbon, and sweet spices.

02 of 16

Curried Pumpkin and Buss Up Shut (Paratha Roti)

Curried Pumpkin and Buss Up Shut
Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

Chef Nina Compton's curried pumpkin recipe is packed with warm spices, aromatic ginger, and rich coconut milk for a perfectly balanced bite. Fresh habanero chiles add a touch of fruity heat to the chunks of tender pumpkin and softened callaloo leaves. Buss up shut gets its name from "busted-up shirt," which describes the flatbread's torn, crinkled texture, perfect for sopping up flavorful curry.

03 of 16

TCM-Inspired Mulled Wine

TCM-Inspired Mulled Wine

Charissa Fay / Food Styling by Nora Singley / Prop Styling by Maeve Sheridan

Warming the body, promoting healthy blood circulation, and lifting the mood are all benefits of drinking this mulled wine in cold and dry weather. Traditional Chinese medicine food therapist Zoey Xinyi Gong's gently sweet recipe is balanced with fragrant clove, cinnamon, and star anise, plus a hint of brown sugar.

04 of 16

Olive Oil Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Sour Candied Oranges

Citrus Olive Oil Cake with Buttercream Frosting
Photo by Sarah Crowder / Food Styling by Drew Aichele

Pastry chef Paola Velez's stunning buttercream-coated olive oil cake is made with a bit of buckwheat flour, which adds color and a deep earthy flavor. It's garnished with candied oranges that have been dredged in a mixture of sugar, salt, and citric acid. The combination turns the oranges into a chewy, sweet-salty-tangy treat reminiscent of candy.

05 of 16

Pork Rib Roast with Sweet Onion Puree and Crisp Sage Tempura

Pork Rib Roast with Sweet Onion Puree and Crisp Sage Tempura
© James Baigrie

Chef Govind Armstrong adores the variety of heady spices in his aromatic brine, which includes cloves, juniper, and mustard seeds. He often uses them to flavor a whole rack of pork, which he finds easier to cook than individual chops. He also likes to finish the rack on a grill to add smoky flavor.

06 of 16

Spiced Pickled Beets

Spiced Pickled Beets
© John Kernick

Pickled beets spiced with cinnamon, bay leaves, allspice, and cloves make for a beautiful cocktail snack.

07 of 16

Masala Chai

glasses of masala chai
Photo by Adam Friedlander / Food Styling by Pearl Jones

This warming beverage is easy to prepare by steeping spices in hot water and milk before adding black tea. It's not as milky as the chai often sold at American coffee bars; to make it richer, add more milk and sugar to taste.

08 of 16

Hot Buttered Rum Biscotti

Hot Buttered Rum Biscotti

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Thom Driver

Sweetened browned butter, rum, and warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves form the base of blogger Jonathan Melendez’s treat — a cookie interpretation of a buttered rum cocktail. Rum extract provides a punch of flavor without adding a lot of moisture, ensuring the dough stays soft and pliable, not sticky, for easy shaping.

09 of 16

Onion-Clove Compote

Onion-Clove Compote
© Chris Court

Pioneering chef Wylie Dufresne slow-cooks onions with cloves to produce a sweet and fragrant condiment that's great with grilled steak, chicken, or pork.

10 of 16

Roasted Squash with Mole Almendrado

Roasted Squash with Mole Almendrado

Christopher Testani / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Lydia Pursell

This mole almendrado (almond mole), made with rehydrated ancho chiles, spices, and Medjool dates, makes for a dreamy dish without the fuss or time commitment you might associate with mole. Food writer and cook Paola Briseño-González shows off the beautiful floral flavor of toasted almonds in this weeknight-friendly sauce, which pairs really well with sweet kabocha squash. 

11 of 16

Gingerbread and White Chocolate Mousse Trifle

Gingerbread and White Chocolate Mousse Trifle
© Chris Court

This trifle is three desserts in one: lemon-tinged white chocolate mousse, delicately spiced gingerbread, and pomegranate caramel. Each part is delicious on its own, too.

12 of 16

Shortcut Café Brûlot

Café Brûlot
Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

Café Brûlot is a signature cocktail of New Orleans, where it's typically prepared tableside at restaurants in an elaborate process. For this easy version, warmed orange liqueur and cognac, fresh lemon and lime juice, cinnamon, cloves, and hot coffee come together in a simple but satisfying, boozy after-dinner drink that can be quickly prepared, served, and savored.

13 of 16

Soup Joumou

Haitian Soup Joumou

Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Shell Royster

This vegetable and beef Haitian soup is rich and savory, making it perfect for cozy winter months. The recipe begins with an epis, the aromatic flavor base that's a backbone of Haitian cooking, made by pureeing bell peppers, scallions, onions, and garlic. The soup is additionally flavored with a Scotch bonnet chile, parsley, thyme, and six whole cloves.

14 of 16

Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles

pumpkin spice snickerdoodles
Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Christine Keely

The secret to nailing these classic cookies is to bake them just until they’re set but not browned. They’ll finish cooking as they cool on the baking sheet, delivering their craveable tender-chewy texture.

15 of 16

Poblanos Rellenos de Picadillo Dulce

Poblanos Rellenos de Picadillo Dulce

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

There’s a lot to like in these smoky peppers, filled with a Picadillo Dulce of lean ground beef seasoned with briny pimiento-stuffed olives and sweet cinnamon, that sit atop a pool of vibrant red-orange caldillo de tomate, a simple, silky tomato sauce.

16 of 16

Sugar and Spice-Roasted Squash

Sugar-and-Spice Roasted Squash
© Lisa Linder

The squash here gets tossed with pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves) and glazed with coconut milk.

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