Question about whole cloves

[piratesmate]

Can anyone here settle something for me? DH laughs at me about this, but my mother (and I think my grandmother) said that you can't eat the whole cloves you use to stud a ham. She said it would make you sick. DH thinks I'm nuts! I have to admit he has a point - you can use ground cloves, so why couldn't you eat a whole one?

Even with all the really old cookbooks I have around here, I can't find the answer. . . and AskJeeves just gave me a bunch of sites about garlic cloves. I guess I didn't ask the right question.

So . . . . .

If you use whole cloves to stud the outside of a ham when baking it, can you eat the meat with the cloves still in or must you pull them out?

Thanks!

Deb

 

[bmoncher]

Yes
You can eat whole cloves cooked. Many Indian recipes use whole cloves in the cooking.

Most American's don't like whole cloves.. but it will not hurt you

Beth in NJ

 

[Hunzi]

Just a wild guess, but while eatting cloves won't make you sick, you're basically eating a small chunk of prickly wood...so maybe the reputation of "getting sick" has to do with either indigestion from that, or worse perferated intestines.

Always (pulled out the whole cloves from any dish she cooked) ;-)
Hunzi