Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Experimenting with cloves


Sloppy Joes
The Complete Family Cook Book Copyright 1969

1 pound lean ground beef
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped green peppers
½ tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon powdered cloves
1 cup catsup
6 hamburger buns

In frying pan cook beef in oil until brown. Add remaining ingredients except buns. Cover; cook slowly for 30 minutes. Spoon ingredients into hamburger buns.

Serves 6.
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I made a few different recipes for sloppy joes (also known as barbecue and wimpies) but this one caught my eye due to the cloves. Cloves have pretty much gone out of style except for limited appearances in cakes and on hams. While they were never hugely popular, years ago you saw a pinch of cloves added to savory recipes every now and then compared to just about never now.

This was risky because I despise cinnamon in savory dishes, why would I try cloves? I'm just a risk-taker I guess. Or maybe stupid. What was the verdict? Loved these! Strange. I love cinnamon and hate it in savory dishes. I don't really care for cloves (I probably had the misfortune of biting on a clove at least once in my life) yet I liked them in this savory dish. I think my tastebuds were more accepting of the cloves since they don't have expectations with cloves like they do with cinnamon.

An almost identical recipe was on all-recipes and people were divided on the cloves. I'm sure they're not for everyone and some people may hate the addition here as much as I hate cinnamon added to savory dishes but it worked for me.

Question of the Day: Do you have ground cloves in your spice collection? When did you last use it? For what dish?

5 comments:

Annie Jones said...

I have both ground and whole cloves among my spices. I use whole cloves when I make Russian tea or other spiced hot drinks. I've used them in some stews and soups before, too.

I use ground cloves mostly in fall baking...things like spice cakes, pumpkin pies, pumpkin or molasses cookies.

I think the last time I used ground cloves was in a rub mixture for pork chops.

Heather said...

I have both ground and whole cloves too, and I think I last used the ground cloves in some kind of curry? The whole cloves I think I have used in hot drinks too, or on a holiday ham.

Meg said...

I use three cloves (and only 3!) in my chili recipe. Recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat and 1 large can of tomatoes, along with onions, bell peppers, etc., and then the three cloves. As they simmer, the cloves sort of melt away, and the chilis delicious and intriguing!

Anonymous said...

I have always had it in my pantry, but don't use if very often. Mostly for pumpkin pie and one of my chili recipes has cloves in it.

Jan

sadie clifford said...

whole cloves are wonderful in an apple tart.