I remember seeing it in old kitchens and wondering what on earth it was supposed to do.
A peeled onion sitting on the counter with whole cloves pushed directly into its surface.
It almost looked decorative—like a tiny, oddly scented hedgehog.
But this wasn’t simply an old-fashioned kitchen ornament. The combination of onion and cloves has a surprisingly long culinary history, and once you understand why people put them together, the trick suddenly makes perfect sense.
Cloves release an intensely warm aroma thanks largely to eugenol, while onions contain their own collection of volatile sulfur compounds. Together, they can perfume broths, soups, sauces, and simmer pots without leaving dozens of tiny cloves floating around in the food.
And that clever little onion has a name in classical cooking: oignon piqué.
The Forgotten Kitchen Trick
Before spice bags, tea infusers, and perfectly portioned seasoning blends became common, cooks needed simple ways to flavor large pots of food.
Whole cloves created a problem.
They’re powerful.
Bite directly into one hidden inside a bowl of soup and you’ll know immediately.
So cooks discovered an elegant solution.
Take an onion and use it as a natural holder.
Push the cloves into the onion.
Drop the whole thing into the pot.
The onion releases flavor as it cooks, the cloves slowly perfume the liquid, and when the cooking is finished, you simply remove the entire onion.
No searching for rogue cloves.
No accidental mouthful of intensely spicy eugenol.
Simple—and rather brilliant.
What Is Oignon Piqué?
In classical French cooking, an oignon piqué is traditionally an onion “studded” with cloves.
Variations may also involve a bay leaf secured to the onion with the cloves.
The prepared onion is then added to stocks, soups, sauces, or other slowly cooked dishes to provide gentle background flavor.
It’s essentially an old-fashioned flavor infuser.
Instead of chopping everything into the pot, you’re creating one removable bundle of aromatics.
Once you’ve tried it, you begin wondering why this isn’t still taught in every kitchen.
Why Cloves?
Cloves are the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum.
Their distinctive smell comes largely from eugenol, an aromatic compound responsible for much of their warm, spicy character.
And cloves are potent.
You don’t need a handful.
Two, three, or four whole cloves can noticeably change the aroma of an entire pot.
That’s precisely why sticking them into an onion works so well.
The onion holds the cloves securely while hot liquid gradually extracts their aromatic compounds.
Instead of getting one overwhelming blast of clove flavor, you get a slower infusion.
And Why an Onion?
Onions contribute an entirely different family of flavors.
When you cut an onion, enzymes begin transforming sulfur-containing compounds.
Those reactions are responsible for both the characteristic onion aroma and the tears that mysteriously appear just as you’re trying to insist you’re “not crying.”
Heat changes these compounds further.
As onions cook, their harsh raw flavor becomes softer and sweeter.
In a broth, an onion contributes savory depth while the cloves provide warmth and spice.
The two ingredients complement each other remarkably well.
Trick #1: Transform a Simple Broth
This is probably the best place to begin.
Peel one small onion.
Push 3–4 whole cloves into it.
Place the onion into a pot of homemade vegetable or chicken broth while it gently simmers.
Leave it there during cooking.
When the broth is ready, remove the entire onion.
You’ll notice a subtle aromatic warmth without necessarily being able to identify cloves immediately.
That’s the beauty of the technique.
The cloves shouldn’t shout.
They should whisper.
Don’t Use Too Many Cloves
This is important.
Cloves are incredibly concentrated.
If four cloves are good, twenty aren’t twenty times better.
Too many can make a broth medicinal, bitter, or almost numbing.
Start modestly.
For an ordinary pot of soup or broth, 2–4 cloves in one onion may be plenty.
You can always increase the amount next time.
You can’t easily persuade twenty cloves to leave a soup once they’ve taken over.
Trick #2: Use It in Bean and Lentil Soups
Beans and lentils pair beautifully with aromatic spices.
Add a clove-studded onion while they’re simmering.
The onion provides savory sweetness while the cloves add warmth in the background.
At the end, remove the onion before serving.
This works particularly well when you want flavor without adding a long list of powdered seasonings.
Sometimes one onion and three cloves can change an entire pot.
Trick #3: Add It to a Simmer Pot
You don’t even have to eat the combination.
An onion-and-clove simmer pot is an old-fashioned way of creating a strong kitchen aroma.
However, if your only goal is fragrance, you don’t necessarily need the onion.
Cloves alone simmered gently in water release their aromatic compounds beautifully.
The onion makes much more sense when you’re cooking food.
For room fragrance, cloves can be paired with citrus peel or cinnamon instead.
That’s an important distinction: traditional tricks often have several versions, and not every ingredient needs to be included simply because it appeared in grandma’s recipe.
Trick #4: Flavor Milk-Based Sauces
Here’s where the classical cooking connection becomes especially interesting.
A clove-studded onion can be used while gently infusing milk for certain traditional sauces.
The onion and cloves are allowed to flavor the warm milk and are then removed.
The milk can subsequently become the base for a creamy sauce.
This gives the sauce aromatic complexity without leaving chopped onion or pieces of clove behind.
It’s a wonderfully elegant technique from an era when cooks had to create flavor without opening a seasoning packet.
Trick #5: Add It to Rice
Try placing a small onion studded with 2–3 cloves into a pot while rice cooks.
The steam and hot liquid gradually carry the aromatic compounds through the dish.
Remove the onion before serving.
This works particularly well with savory rice dishes where a subtle warm spice note is welcome.
Again, restraint matters.
You’re seasoning the rice—not preparing clove-flavored perfume.
Trick #6: Make an Aromatic Stew
Slow-cooked foods are perfect for this technique.
A whole onion has time to soften while the cloves slowly release their flavor.
Add one to a stew at the beginning of cooking.
When everything is tender, lift the onion out.
This gives you flavor without tiny spice fragments scattered throughout the dish.
It’s basically an edible spice container.
Grandmothers were doing meal-prep engineering before anyone gave it a trendy name.
But There’s Another Reason People Became Fascinated With This Combination
Both onion and cloves contain interesting plant compounds.
Onions provide flavonoids, including quercetin, as well as sulfur-containing compounds.
Cloves contain eugenol and numerous other phenolic compounds.
These substances have been extensively investigated for antioxidant and antimicrobial activity, particularly in laboratory research.
That makes both ingredients fascinating foods.
But it doesn’t mean placing a clove-studded onion in a room suddenly disinfects the air or removes illness from the body.
That’s where an old kitchen tradition sometimes becomes an exaggerated internet remedy.
Can an Onion Pull Germs Out of the Air?
You may have heard another version of the story:
Cut an onion.
Stick cloves into it.
Leave it beside your bed.
By morning, the onion has supposedly “absorbed” viruses, bacteria, toxins, or illness from the room.
That’s a much stronger claim than the evidence supports.
An onion isn’t a biological vacuum cleaner.
It doesn’t pull viruses out of your lungs while you sleep.
And a clove-studded onion shouldn’t replace normal ventilation, hygiene, or appropriate treatment when someone is sick.
The real culinary trick is interesting enough without turning the onion into a supernatural air purifier.
But the Aroma Is Real
Put several cloves into a freshly cut onion and leave it nearby.
You’ll smell it.
Both ingredients release volatile compounds into the surrounding air.
That strong aroma can make the trick feel as though something powerful is happening.
And smell has a remarkable effect on our perception of a room.
A kitchen scented with cloves can feel warmer and cleaner.
That sensory experience is genuine.
It simply isn’t the same thing as sterilizing the air.
Why Grandmothers Loved Whole Spices
Whole spices have one major advantage:
they release flavor gradually.
Ground cloves immediately expose a huge amount of surface area.
Their flavor disperses rapidly and can easily overwhelm a dish.
Whole cloves are slower.
And when they’re embedded in an onion, they’re incredibly easy to retrieve.
The same philosophy explains other traditional cooking techniques.
Whole peppercorns in broth.
Bay leaves in stew.
Cinnamon sticks in simmering drinks.
Whole spices provide aroma without turning the final dish into spice powder.
The Simplest Version
You’ll need only:
1 small onion
3–4 whole cloves
Peel the onion.
Push the pointed end of each clove firmly into the onion, spacing them around the surface.
That’s it.
For broth, soup, beans, or stew, place the whole onion into the pot while the liquid simmers.
Allow it to infuse during cooking.
Remove it before serving.
One minute of preparation can give an entire pot a subtle aromatic character.
Add a Bay Leaf for the Classic Version
Want to make it even more traditional?
Place a bay leaf against the surface of the onion.
Use the cloves almost like tiny pins to hold the bay leaf in place.
Now the onion carries three layers of aroma:
onion,
clove,
and bay.
Drop the entire bundle into your soup or stock.
Remove it when cooking is finished.
It’s one of those wonderfully simple techniques that makes you feel like you’ve discovered a forgotten cooking secret.
Why Not Just Chop Everything?
You certainly can.
But chopped onion becomes part of the finished food.
Ground cloves remain dispersed throughout it.
A clove-studded whole onion gives you another option:
infusion without permanent inclusion.
You extract flavor and then remove the source.
That’s particularly useful for clear stocks, smooth sauces, and recipes where you want aromatic complexity without visible pieces.
Onion and Cloves Are Nutritionally Interesting Too
Onions are low in calories while contributing vitamin C, small amounts of several micronutrients, and various phytochemicals.
Their flavonoid content—especially quercetin—has received considerable scientific attention.
Cloves are exceptionally concentrated in aromatic phenolic compounds, particularly eugenol.
But because cloves are normally consumed in tiny quantities, they’re best viewed as a flavorful addition to an overall plant-rich diet rather than a supplement disguised as a spice.
You don’t need to eat an entire clove-studded onion to “get the benefits.”
Thankfully.
One Mistake to Avoid
Don’t leave a raw cut onion sitting around for days and then decide to cook with it.
If you’re making an aromatic room decoration, treat it as decoration and discard it appropriately.
If you’re preparing an oignon piqué for food, make it fresh and put it directly into the recipe.
Food safety still applies to traditional tricks.
Grandma’s kitchen wisdom works much better when combined with a refrigerator.
The Trick Worth Keeping
There’s something charming about rediscovering a technique this simple.
No special gadget.
No expensive seasoning blend.
No complicated preparation.
Just one onion and a few whole cloves.
Push the cloves into the onion and simmer it in soup, broth, beans, rice, stew, or milk for a savory sauce.
The onion becomes a natural spice holder.
The cloves slowly release their warm aroma.
And when the dish is finished, the entire bundle comes out in seconds.
That’s the real secret behind the strange little clove-covered onion.
It isn’t pulling toxins from the room.
It isn’t magically absorbing illness.
It’s something much more practical:
a clever, centuries-old way to control flavor using two of the simplest ingredients in the kitchen.
And once you’ve used it in a pot of homemade broth, there’s a good chance you’ll understand exactly why grandma kept doing it.
For more surprising kitchen hacks and traditional remedies, check out why some people boil garlic in milk or how carrots in boiling milk can change your grocery list, and prepare to have your mind blown when you mix baking soda and vinegar.
