What to use instead of cloves
Quick answer
The closest option is Allspice, rated good. Allspice contains eugenol, the compound that gives clove its character, so the essential note survives. It arrives softened and accompanied by cinnamon-like and peppery notes, which makes the result rounder and less insistent — often an improvement in a dish where clove was at risk of dominating.
It will not do for: Anywhere whole cloves are studded into a food and retrieved, since allspice berries behave differently in that role and are not interchangeable with a clove pushed into a ham.; Dishes where the sharp medicinal clove note is the identifying flavour rather than a background one; Recipes already containing cinnamon and pepper, which allspice will double.
All recorded options
Ranked by suitability. Ratios are given only where they are defensible, and always with their basis — by weight or by volume — because spice densities differ.
Allspice
Good matchUse: 1.5–2 (typically 2)× by volume — Roughly twice the volume of allspice for the clove replaced, because allspice is a milder spice carrying the clove note alongside others. Start at the lower end of the range and taste.
Allspice contains eugenol, the compound that gives clove its character, so the essential note survives. It arrives softened and accompanied by cinnamon-like and peppery notes, which makes the result rounder and less insistent — often an improvement in a dish where clove was at risk of dominating.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | close | n/a |
Works for
- Baking, mulled drinks and mixed-spice applications
- Braises and stocks
- Caribbean and Middle Eastern dishes where allspice is already at home
Does not work for
- Anywhere whole cloves are studded into a food and retrieved, since allspice berries behave differently in that role and are not interchangeable with a clove pushed into a ham.
- Dishes where the sharp medicinal clove note is the identifying flavour rather than a background one
- Recipes already containing cinnamon and pepper, which allspice will double
The closest single-spice replacement for clove available in an ordinary kitchen, and the only one on this list that shares the actual dominant compound rather than merely occupying a similar slot.
Cinnamon (Ceylon) with Nutmeg
AcceptableUse: 1–2 (typically 1.5)× by volume — Around two parts cinnamon to one part nutmeg, at roughly one and a half times the volume of the clove replaced. Cloves are strong enough that a straight one-for-one swap undershoots.
The warm sweet register is covered and the medicinal, astringent edge is not. The result is friendlier and less distinctive; anyone who dislikes clove will prefer it, and anyone looking for clove will notice it is absent.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | partial | close | n/a |
Works for
- Baking and sweet spice mixes
- Mulled drinks
- Dishes where clove was one warm note among several
Does not work for
- Studded hams and onions clouté, where a whole clove is doing physical as well as flavour work
- Biryani and pulao, where the clove note is expected and identifiable
- Pickling liquors, where clove’s astringency is structural
Where cloves stands in for something else
The reverse view of the same graph.
- Instead of Allspice — good
Questions this page answers
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