Use whole dried cloves, not ground cloves.
You usually only need several cloves to flavor a pot.
Because cloves have a powerful aroma, adding too many can make a dish taste overly strong or medicinal.
Step 4: Press the Cloves Into the Onion
Simply push the pointed end of each whole clove into the onion.
You can distribute them around the onion or place them mostly on one side.
The cloves stay embedded in the onion while it cooks, making them much easier to remove later.
Step 5: Add the Onion to Your Dish
Place the prepared onion into a pot of soup, broth, sauce, stew, or another slow-cooked dish.
As the onion gently cooks, the heat extracts its flavor while the cloves release their warm aromatic compounds.
The result is a background flavor rather than an overpowering clove taste.
Step 6: Let It Simmer
Allow the onion to cook with the rest of your ingredients.
For soups and stews, it can simmer for the duration of cooking.
The longer cooking time allows the flavors to blend together naturally.
Step 7: Remove It Before Serving
Once your dish is finished, carefully remove the whole onion.
You can also remove any cloves that may have fallen out.
This is one of the reasons the technique is so convenient: you get the flavor of both ingredients without having pieces of clove scattered throughout your meal.
Why Does This Combination Work?
The secret is aroma and balance.
Onions contain naturally occurring sulfur compounds and sugars that create their characteristic savory and sweet flavor when cooked.
Cloves, meanwhile, contain aromatic compounds—particularly eugenol—that give them their distinctive warm, spicy fragrance.
When the two ingredients slowly cook together, the clove’s powerful aroma becomes integrated into the dish while the onion contributes sweetness and savory depth.
You don’t necessarily taste “onion and clove” separately.
Instead, the finished dish can simply taste richer and more complex.
Where Can You Use a Clove-Studded Onion?
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