Cloves and Onion: A Millennial Alliance Between Flavor and Ancestral Wisdom

Behind the simplest gestures sometimes lie the best-kept secrets of culinary history. Pricking cloves into an onion may seem trivial — yet this practice has crossed centuries without aging a day, carried from kitchen to kitchen like a precious heritage.

Cloves are the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, a tree native to the Indonesian Moluccas. Their aromatic power and medicinal properties made them a reference spice in culinary and therapeutic traditions worldwide, long before the era of pharmaceutical laboratories.

Opposite them, the onion (Allium cepa) stands as one of the oldest nutritional pillars of human diet. Rich in antioxidants, sulfur compounds, and prebiotics, it nourishes the palate as much as the body — a dual function that Mediterranean and Asian civilizations have exploited for millennia.

But it is their combination that reveals something remarkable: together, cloves and onion create a synergy that amplifies their respective properties — both gustatory and medicinal. The eugenol in cloves potentializes the natural anti-inflammatory effects of the onion, while the sweet mildness of the latter softens the spicy intensity of the spice.

This alliance, passed down from generation to generation in European, African, and Asian families, is today being rediscovered in the light of science — with results that confirm popular wisdom.

In the Kitchen and Beyond: The Unsuspected Uses of This Combination

This millennial synergy is not only expressed in old remedy books — it invites itself daily into our kitchens and homes, often without us realizing its real impact.

In cooking, the studded onion is a fundamental technique of European gastronomy. Slipped into the flesh of the bulb, the cloves diffuse their aromas evenly throughout the cooking process, without the risk of inadvertently biting into one. The result: soups, broths, and stews gain aromatic depth. Pot-au-feu, béchamel sauce, and classic broth are among the emblematic recipes where this discreet ingredient plays a decisive role in the complexity of taste.

But the uses extend far beyond the stove. Placed in a corner of the kitchen or living room, a studded onion acts as an effective natural deodorizer — a common practice in homes of the past, before synthetic air purifiers invaded the shelves. Its principle is simple: the volatile compounds of the two ingredients neutralize bad odors without masking the atmosphere with artificial fragrances.

Outdoors, this combination also proves valuable: the mixture of their scents naturally repels flies and mosquitoes, offering a chemical-free alternative for meals on the terrace or summer picnics.

Virtues as varied as they are concrete — and which find an even deeper echo when we examine what this alliance silently accomplishes for the body.

Health: Five Scientific Reasons to Rediscover This Natural Duo

What this alliance accomplishes in the kitchen and in the home is only the visible side of a much deeper potential — one that science is beginning to document with precision.

First benefit: digestion. The eugenol contained in cloves exerts a direct anti-inflammatory action on the intestinal mucosa, while the natural prebiotics of the onion nourish the microbiome. A broth prepared with a studded onion is enough to soothe bloating and digestive discomfort.

Second lever: the respiratory tract. The sulfur compounds of the onion thin the mucus, while cloves act as a natural expectorant and calm throat irritation — a formidable tandem against winter colds and congestion.

Third asset: immunity. Quercetin, a major antioxidant in onions, supports the body’s natural defenses. The antifungal and antibacterial properties of cloves complete this shield, strengthening resistance to infections.

Fourth benefit: reduction of inflammation. Both ingredients share anti-inflammatory compounds effective against arthritis, sore throats, and other chronic inflammatory states.

Fifth reason, often ignored: blood sugar regulation. An infusion obtained by boiling a studded onion in water is a recognized traditional remedy for stabilizing blood glucose levels.

Five documented benefits that transform a trivial culinary gesture into a true health routine — and which deserve to be concretely adopted in the kitchen.

Take Action: How to Integrate the Studded Onion into Your Recipes Today

Five documented benefits are convincing on paper — but it is on the plate that this tradition takes on its full meaning. Good news: adopting this duo requires neither special equipment nor hard-to-find ingredients.

The flagship recipe remains onion soup flavored with cloves. To prepare it, you need a large onion, 6 to 8 cloves, 4 cups of vegetable or chicken broth, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, two minced garlic cloves, salt, and pepper. Simply prick the cloves into the whole onion, sauté it in olive oil with the garlic, then let it simmer in the broth over low heat. The heat gradually releases eugenol and quercetin, transforming an ordinary broth into a concentrate of benefits.

The studded onion integrates just as easily into a pot-au-feu, a béchamel sauce, or a simple recovery broth at the end of the week. For those interested in blood sugar regulation, an infusion prepared by boiling a studded onion for twenty minutes in water constitutes a gentle alternative, consumable as is at the start of the day.

What strikes you, finally, is the simplicity of the gesture — a few cloves in an onion are enough to summon centuries of culinary and medical wisdom into your daily life.