Had dinner last night with my family at an informal dining room at a private club. On the menu was a Jalisco style goat stew.
I ordered it and it had a pronounced clove spice smell and taste. I'm wondering if by chance anyone knows if cloves are really
part of the "Jalisco style" or if by chance a chef reading a recipe saw "clove of garlic" and well... added cloves by accident?
I assume "Jalisco-style goat stew" is what most would call birria—one of the most famous dishes of Jalisco (or might this stew be something else entirely?). Many, if not most, preparations of birria I've sampled in Chicago have at least a hint of clove. If you visit Nueva Birrieria Ocotlan on Cermak—unrelated to other birrierias with similar names, I think—the first thing you'll notice upon entering is the strong aroma of cloves. The broth has a dominant clove flavor, the strongest I've encountered. I like this birria a lot but the clove flavor is on the verge of being excessive. Give it a try—I'd rate Birrieria Ocotlan on Cermak near the top of Chicago's soup-style birrias.


If you read the birria recipe in Diana Kennedy's classic
The Cuisines of Mexico you'll see it calls for cloves (as well as cloves of garlic).
This is just my long-winded way of saying, yes, cloves are used in Jaliciense cuisine and in birria in particular.
Nueva Birrieria Ocotlan
3011 W Cermak Rd
Chicago
773-277-0189