Excerpt from God’s Banquet Table
An evergreen tree that grows in the West Indies bears a brilliant red flower. When the flower buds are dried, they turn a dark brown, almost blackish color, producing our familiar clove that is rich in oil. Cloves have a strong aroma and pungent spicy flavor.
A good quality clove will be oily and tough. It is not recommended to grind whole cloves in the coffee grinder because the high oil content leaves a strong clove flavor in whatever you grind afterward. We learned this one the hard way. Several failed attempts in cleaning resulted in a new coffee grinder.
Powdered cloves are excellent in all sweet baking. An orange with cloves stuck into its skin fills the room with a beautiful aroma and acts as an insect repellent. A clove can relieve the suffering of an aching tooth.
