Clove is a dried flower bud. It has many functions in our kitchen. It can be the flavor of savory dishes or sweet dishes. Clove is very versatile. Clove comes from an exotic evergreen tree in the Myrtaceae family, Syzygium Aromaticumnative.
It is native to Maluku Island, the east of Indonesia. Besides clove can be the flavor of dishes while cooking, clove is also used as a healthy drink. Clove can be anti-microbial, antiseptics, and pain-relief properties.
Furthermore, clove has many functions both as a flavor of dishes and as a medication practice. There are some types of clothes that you need to know.
Where Does Clove Come From?
Originally, clove comes from Maluku, Indonesia. As we know that Maluku is called Spicy Island. It is because there are many spices grow on this island. They are nutmeg, mace, and clove.
Clove is very famous all over the world because of its benefits. Many people all around the world plant this plant such as Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Zanzibar, India, and Tanzania.
How Does Clove Look Like?
If we describe clove, we can start from the tree. The tree of clove is about 25 to 50 feet in height. We can harvest the flower bud using hand. If you see the green color has changed to be pink, it means the cloves are ready to pick. After that, you can spread them on the mat. Then, the final step is you can dry it in the sun for about 3 days.
If we see the clove itself, the length of the clove is just half an inch. The form has a stem and a rounded head. When the clove becomes dry, you can see a hard exterior with the head and body of the clove. It contains eugenol, the primary compound of clove. The sweet, intense, and pungent cloves are saved inside the dry clove.
What are the Functions of Clove?
If you ask about the functions of clove, there are so many functions of clove. The unique aroma and the sweet taste make clove the spices of many dishes. You can add cloves to the food and beverage that are suitable for cloves. Gingerbread, cookies, and pumpkin pie are the sweet dishes that cloves are there to add the sweet taste of cookies,
Not only the sweet dishes, but cloves are also in savory dishes. In savory dishes, cloves are also combined with ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and peppercorns. Your savory dishes will be more delicious adding cloves inside. And there is the warming effect of using cloves inside your dishes.
Cloves can maintain your body temperature and improve your body circulation, so you will feel warmer in your body. Besides, cloves can attach to bacteria growth. It is also used as a traditional curative. Other functions are antiseptic, antimicrobial, and pain–relief properties.
You can also add cloves to your beverage. Feel the warmer sensation after you drink it. You can add clove to your tea or your wine. It will give a warmer sensation and wonderful taste. So, cloves have many functions, don’t they?
Do You Know Hand-Picked Cloves?
Hand-picked cloves do not mean the cloves that pick directly from the trunk, but it refers to the hand selection of the cloves. The cloves will be selected as the biggest and highest quality cloves and they are said as hand-picked cloves. There are many hand-picked cloves are exported to the United States. The cloves can be from Penang, Ceylon, and Sri Lanka.
How are Cloves by Oil Content?
Cloves are valued by the amount of oil inside. The higher the oil content is inside the glove, the better the quality of the cloves. You need to know that high-quality cloves contain 15 percent or up to 15 percent of the oil. The higher quality of cloves will be smelt more aromatic and this distinctive aroma is called eugenol.
So, the more eugenol is inside the clove, the more aromatic cloves will be. It is interesting, isn’t it? So, make sure your choice is the higher quality of cloves to create the great taste of clove in your house.
What is Eugenol?
Eugenol is the clove oil. It has many functions. People in the United States usually use eugenol as an additional substance in food products, perfumes, mouthwashes, cosmetics, and toothpaste. This clove oil contains anesthetic properties.
If you have a toothache in you, it is better to chew the cloves because the eugenol of the cloves will help to relieve your toothache pain. This is the reason that dentist also uses clove oil as a mild anesthetic. You can find the clove oil not only from the clove itself but also from the stems and leaves. So, eugenol has many functions, doesn’t it?
Cloves in Cigarette
In Indonesia itself, cloves are a part of the cigarette. Cloves add the aroma of cigarettes. They make cigarettes aromatic. The spicy of the cigarettes spread well. The production of cigarettes in Indonesia is high annually.
It makes the cloves are very important to produce every year too because, without the aroma of cloves in cigarettes, they will not be perfect in taste.
The anesthetic sensation can not be gotten without cloves inside. So, the cloves are very important aren’t they?
Furthermore, they are the original and types of cloves. We know, that cloves are very important to the addition of the food whether sweet or savory dishes. Besides, they are used as the additional substance of beverage.
It has an anesthetic function too. The eugenol of cloves is used as an additional substance in many products, such as toothpaste, cosmetics, perfumes, and so on.
Straight to the point, cloves are also chosen, we say them as hand-picked cloves. It means the cloves are the best chosen. They are selected as the best and high-quality cloves.
It is very important to choose the best quality cloves because the higher quality cloves have up to 15 % of the clove oil. This best quality of cloves can export to the United States and other countries.
In conclusion, we have known all the types of cloves and their functions of, haven’t we? So, choose the best quality cloves!
