How To Grind Whole Cloves Without A Mortar And Pestle?

Want to grind whole cloves but don’t have a mortar and a pestle?

Don’t worry, I have got you covered. Generally, it is good to use a mortar and a pestle to grind whole cloves to ensure the best flavor and freshness. But there are other ways as well to grind your whole cloves.

Let’s see.

The best and the simplest way to grind whole cloves without using a mortar and a pestle is to use a coffee grinder. However, it is important to use a clean coffee grinder; otherwise, the smell of coffee will come in whole cloves after grinding them.

Moreover, you can also use a blender, ziplock bag, or sharp objects. However, you won’t get that nice ground of whole cloves unless you use a dedicated grinder or a blender.

But if your recipe needs only a bit of grinding whole cloves, then the other methods of using a zip lock bag and heavy objects can also work well.

Let’s jump in and learn all the methods in more detail!

4 Easy Ways To Grind Cloves Without A Mortar And Pestle

1. Using A Coffee Grinder

Using a coffee grinder to grind whole cloves is quite simple. You have to just take the whole cloves, toss them in the grinder, turn on the grinder appropriately, and see your whole cloves grinding. So easy, isn’t it?

But there is a catch here. If you use the same coffee grinder to grind your coffee beans, then an odd smell of spices and cloves may sneak into your coffee. And most probably you won’t be happy about that.

Likewise, the same thing can also happen the other way round. The smell of coffee might come and blend a  bit with the scent of clove.

What’s the solution? Ideally, it is best to use separate and dedicated coffee grinders to grind the whole cloves. Along with that, you need to clean the coffee grinder thoroughly. This will ensure that the flavor and scent of the cloves are retained as it is and doesn’t get mixed up.

2. Using A Blender

You can grind whole cloves in a blender. First, however, you need to make sure that the blender has appropriate blades to grind the whole cloves.

Not all blenders will have the right blades to grind the spices, seeds, grains, etc. So you need to select the one that will be capable of grinding your whole clove.

You can also purchase the blender specially dedicated to grinding the spices. As a general rule, to determine which blenders will be apt for grinding the whole cloves, you can look for one that has a flat blade grinding attachment.

Here are some points you can follow while grinding whole cloves in a blender:

• First, make sure the grinder is suitable for grinding the whole cloves, and the grinder blade is attached to the blender’s base.
• Now, add some required amount of whole cloves into the canister, attach the canister to the grinding blade, and place it on the base of the blender.
• Turn on the blender and allow it to run for some time until you feel and notice that the whole cloves have ground successfully.
• After that, you can turn off the blender and take all the clove grounds out of it.
• You can also use a sieve while collecting the clove grounds so that you can again use the clove remaining in the blender for another round of grinding.
• You can repeat all these processes until you get the required amount of clove grounds and then make sure to store it in an airtight container.

Grinding your whole gloves using the coffee grinder, blender, or spice grinder will give you the ideal results. You will get the powdery ground clove the way you want.

However, if you are okay with a little bit of grinding, then the manual methods that I will be sharing with you now will also work well for you.

3. Using Sharp Objects

So you can grind the whole cloves using a chef’s knife and a cutting board. Here are the steps you can follow:

• First, place the whole cloves on the cutting board.
• Now take a Chef’s knife and place it over the cloves. But make sure that the blade of the knife remains flat. You should also keep the sharp end of the knife facing away from you.
• Then it’s the action time! Apply pressure using your fist and the life over the whole cloves. You can also smash your hand on the blunt side of the knife. The idea is simply to grind the cloves applying pressure. That’s it!
• Obviously, you may not receive a nice powdery ground of clove. But this can be a good option when you don’t have a mortar and a pestle, and you just want to grind the cloves a bit.
• Moreover, you are not just restricted to the chef’s knife. If you have a butcher’s knife, that can work well, and the process will be the same. Applying pressure and crushing the cloves!

The main benefit of following this method is being quite handy. You will have both the knife and the cutting board, and no additional tools are required. Also, you can grind the cloves without spending much time.

However, the only downside is there is a potential chance of hurting yourself using the knife and pressing the cloves. But as long as your hands remain stable using the knife and you have a good practice of using them, you don’t need to worry much.

4. Using A Ziplock Bag

The ziplock bag method of grinding the cloves is a cool hack and simple too. You have to just take some whole cloves and put them inside a zip lock bag.

Then using a rolling pin, you can apply pressure and roll it over your zip lock bag. You can also use other blunt objects to apply the pressure. After doing it a few times, you will get the ground of cloves.

Conclusion

There are many ways to grind the whole cloves without a mortar and a pestle. The simplest and preferable way is to use a coffee grinder.

If you have a dedicated spice grinder, then it is the best. But still, you can also use a blender, sharp objects like a knife, or a zip lock bag.

All the methods have already been explained in this post in detail. So that’s it! I hope this post helps you grind the whole cloves perfectly without using the mortar and a pestle.