How to Make an Orange Pomander That Dries Hard and Lasts for Years
An orange, a jar of cloves and two to four weeks of drying: how to make an orange pomander that hardens instead of molding, the cinnamon and orris root mix, pattern ideas, and the history of the Tudor amber apple.
An orange pomander is the simplest winter craft there is: an orange, a jar of whole cloves and an afternoon. It is also the one most people get wrong, because a pomander that is not dried properly turns soft and grows mold in a week. Here is how to make one that dries hard and keeps its scent for years, which spice mix actually helps, how long curing takes, and where the custom comes from, from the gold “amber apples” of Tudor courts to the clove oranges of a December kitchen.
Contents
To make an orange pomander, pierce the peel of a firm, small orange with a skewer and push whole cloves into the holes close together. Roll it in ground cinnamon and orris root, then dry it in a warm, airy place for two to four weeks, turning it daily, until it is light and hard. Tie the ribbon on after drying.
The word pomander comes from the French pomme d'ambre, apple of amber, after the ambergris in early versions.
Source/tradition: Wikipedia, Pomander; Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
Sixteenth-century pomanders were gold or silver containers filled with aromatics believed to ward off disease.
Source/tradition: Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 196980
Whole cloves draw moisture from the peel, and a densely studded orange dries hard instead of rotting.
Source/tradition: maker reports, craft tradition
A pomander at Yule can serve as a sun symbol for the returning light.
Source/tradition: contemporary pagan practice
Pomanders were carried as protection against plague and bad air.
Source/tradition: pre-modern medicine, miasma belief
A pomander purifies the air or protects against illness.
Source/tradition: no evidence; plague is caused by Yersinia pestis
VERIFIED = verifiable in scientific or official sources · TRADITIONAL = historically or culturally recorded · LIVED PRACTICE = widely practiced, experiential knowledge · NOT PROVEN = spiritual interpretation, not scientifically established.
Quick answer: To make an orange pomander, pierce the peel of a firm, small orange with a skewer and push whole cloves into the holes, close together, in rows or patterns. Roll it in ground cinnamon and orris root, then dry it in a warm, airy place for two to four weeks, turning it daily, until it is light and hard. A ribbon goes on after drying.
How do you make an orange pomander?
You make an orange pomander by studding a whole orange with dried cloves and letting it dry. The cloves draw moisture out of the peel and their oil slows spoilage, so a well-covered orange slowly shrinks, hardens and becomes a long-lasting scented ornament. Done right, it smells of orange and clove for a year or more.
Everything that goes wrong with pomanders goes wrong at the drying stage, not the decorating stage. So the steps below are short and the drying section is long. If you only read one part, read that.
What do you need to make a pomander?
| Item | Amount | Why | Substitute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm, small orange | 1 | Small, thin-skinned fruit dries faster and more evenly | Clementine, mandarin, lemon, lime |
| Whole dried cloves | About 1–2 oz (roughly 100–250 cloves) | They draw out moisture and carry the scent | None; ground cloves cannot replace them |
| Bamboo skewer or thick needle | 1 | Pre-piercing saves your fingertips and stops cloves snapping | Toothpick, nail |
| Ground cinnamon | 1–2 tbsp | Scent and a drying coat | Nutmeg, allspice, ginger |
| Orris root powder | 1 tbsp | A classic fixative in potpourri; helps the scent last | Leave out; the pomander still works |
| Ribbon and masking tape | About 3 ft | Tape marks the ribbon lines while you stud; ribbon goes on after drying | Twine, raffia |
| Paper bag or bowl | 1 | For curing in the spice mix | Shallow dish |
How to make a clove orange pomander, step by step
Seven steps
- Pick the fruit. Firm, unbruised, small. Wash and dry it completely. A soft spot now is a moldy spot in a week.
- Mark the ribbon lines. If you want a ribbon, wrap masking tape where it will go, one or two bands around the orange. Leave those strips free of cloves.
- Pierce, then push. Make a hole with the skewer, then press a clove in up to its head. Work in rows, about a clove-head’s width apart. The fruit shrinks as it dries and the gaps close.
- Cover densely. The more peel is covered, the faster and safer it dries. Fully studded oranges cure most reliably; sparse patterns need a warmer, drier spot.
- Roll in spice. Mix the cinnamon and orris root, roll the orange in it and press the powder into the gaps.
- Cure. Leave it in the bag or bowl with the spice in a warm, dry, airy place and turn it once a day.
- Finish. When it is light, hard and sounds hollow when tapped, shake off the loose powder, peel off the tape and tie the ribbon into the bare channels.
How long does an orange pomander take to dry?
An orange pomander takes about two to four weeks to dry in a warm, dry, airy room, sometimes longer for a large or sparsely studded fruit. It is finished when it feels light for its size, the peel is hard and it sounds hollow when tapped. Faster methods exist, and they each have a cost.
| Method | Typical time | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spice cure in a bag or bowl | 2–4 weeks | Best scent, traditional, almost no risk of scorching | Slow; needs daily turning and a dry room |
| Air dry, hanging | 2–6 weeks | No mess, decorative while drying | Highest mold risk in humid homes |
| Oven, lowest setting (about 150–200°F) | Several hours, often over two or three sessions | Fast; good for gifts on a deadline | Can brown the peel and dull the scent; never leave unattended |
| Food dehydrator | Several hours to a day or two | Even, gentle heat | Smells up the kitchen; ribbon must wait |
| Near a radiator or wood stove (not on it) | 1–3 weeks | Uses warmth you already have | Too close and the peel cracks or scorches |
If you want pomanders for a December gift, start them in mid-November. If you are reading this in mid-December, use the oven or a dehydrator for the first stage and finish in a bowl of spice.
Why do pomanders go moldy, and how do you stop it?
Pomanders go moldy when moisture stays in the peel longer than the cloves and spices can draw it out. The usual causes are bare patches of peel, a humid room, a plastic bag or sealed box, a bruised fruit, or a fruit that is simply too big. Fix the cause, not the symptom.
Cause
Too much bare peel
Cause
Humid room
Cause
No airflow
Cause
Bruised or large fruit
A little white bloom on the cloves in the first days is usually just spice powder. Fuzzy blue, green or grey patches on the peel are mold. If it is a single small spot, cut out the area, dab it with a little vodka or rubbing alcohol, re-stud and dry it hard in a low oven. If the fruit is soft under your thumb, compost it and start again.
Temple Tip: use the spice twice
When a pomander is finished, keep the spice powder from the curing bag. It is now scented with orange oil and works beautifully in a Yule simmer pot or a dish of loose potpourri. Nothing wasted, and the second use smells better than the first.
What spices go in a pomander mix?
The standard pomander mix is ground cinnamon with orris root powder, often with nutmeg, allspice or ginger added. Cinnamon brings warmth and helps coat and dry the peel. Orris root, ground from the rhizome of certain irises, has a faint violet scent of its own and is the classic fixative in potpourri: it helps the other scents last longer.
A good starting ratio is two parts cinnamon, one part orris root, half a part nutmeg. If you are sensitive to fragrance or making these with children, cinnamon alone is enough. Old recipes go much further: the 1586 recipe in John Partridge’s Treasurie of Commodious Conceits calls for benzoin, labdanum and storax cooked in rose water, coated with cinnamon and cloves, and finished with ambergris, musk and civet. Those last three were the luxury perfume materials of the age, and the reason early pomanders belonged to the rich.
Pomander pattern ideas
Easiest
Fully studded
Classic
Quartered with ribbon
Decorative
Spiral
Personal
Stars and initials
For a pattern with lots of bare peel, a zester or channel knife can cut thin grooves through the orange skin first. Exposed pith dries faster than whole peel and gives a two-tone stripe that looks lovely once the fruit darkens.
Where do pomanders come from?
The word pomander comes from the French pomme d’ambre, “apple of amber”, after the ambergris that perfumed the earliest versions. A medieval or Renaissance pomander was not an orange at all: it was a ball of scented paste, or a perforated container of gold or silver holding one, worn on a chain or hung from a belt. They are mentioned in literature from the mid-thirteenth century, first as religious keepsakes.
By the sixteenth century they were luxury jewelry. In 1520 the Duke of Buckingham commissioned a gold pomander bearing the badges of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon as her New Year’s gift, and a London goldsmith’s 1576 records list 224 “pomanders of gold filled with pomander.” Museum pieces such as a sixteenth-century German silver-gilt pomander at the Metropolitan Museum of Art open into segments, each holding a different aromatic. In the eighteenth century fashionable society switched to vinaigrettes, tiny boxes holding a sponge soaked in scented vinegar, and the jeweled pomander faded out. What survived was the household version: fruit and cloves.
Did pomanders protect against the plague?
Pomanders did not protect against the plague, but people believed they did. For centuries, European medicine held that disease spread through corrupted, foul-smelling air, an idea later called miasma theory. Strong aromatics were thought to purify that air. The Met describes its silver-gilt pomander exactly this way: filled with scented materials “used to ward off disease and sanitize the air.”
We now know that plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, carried mainly by fleas, and that no perfume stops it. The pomander’s real gift was to make crowded, unwashed streets more bearable. That is still what it does today, in a gentler setting.
Pomanders at Yule and in winter folk practice
In many homes the clove orange is simply a Christmas craft, hung on the tree, piled in a bowl or tucked into linen drawers. It is hard to date exactly when it became a December custom, and we have not found a reliable source that pins it down, so we will not invent one. What is clear is that oranges and cloves were both costly imports in earlier centuries, which made a studded orange a generous gift.
Modern pagan and folk-magic practitioners often make pomanders at Yule as a small sun symbol for the returning light: round, golden and warm-scented. Some write a wish for the coming year on a slip of paper and tie it under the ribbon; others make one for each household member. These are contemporary practices, and they are best described as such. You will find more of the season in how to celebrate Yule.
How long does a dried pomander last?
A properly dried pomander lasts for years. It will darken from orange to brown and shrink noticeably, and the scent will soften after the first season, but it will not rot once it is truly dry. Store it between seasons in a paper bag or a breathable box with a little fresh spice, not in plastic.
To refresh one, warm it in your hands, roll it in fresh ground cinnamon, or add a drop of orange or clove essential oil to the ribbon. Do not soak or wet the fruit; you would reopen the door to mold.
Pomander safety: kids, pets and sore fingers
Pomanders are a safe craft with three simple cautions. First, pushing hundreds of cloves is hard on fingertips; pre-pierce the peel and use a thimble. Clove oil can irritate sensitive skin, so wash your hands afterwards and keep them away from your eyes. Second, small children should do the pushing while an adult does the piercing with the skewer. Third, keep finished pomanders and any essential oils out of reach of pets and small children, who may chew them. If a pet eats part of a pomander, call your vet.
When drying in the oven, use the lowest setting, check often and never leave it on overnight. Keep pomanders away from candle flames and open fires; dried peel and spice burn.
Quiz: which pomander should you make?
Quick quiz
Your first pomander
Three questions, then a suggestion.
Voices from practice
We do not publish invented testimonials. These are patterns that recur in public craft forums, family blogs and comment threads on pomander tutorials, given without names.
The most common report, by far, is mold: a beautiful sparse spiral that went fuzzy within ten days in a kitchen. The fix people describe afterwards is always the same: denser cloves, a drier room, a paper bag. The second most common is sore thumbs, followed by delight at discovering the skewer. A third pattern is longevity: people describe pomanders made by a grandparent still sitting in a drawer decades later, dark and light as cork, still faintly scented.
What we don’t promise
What we don’t promise
The history on this page is documented in museum records and period sources. Drying times are typical reports from makers and vary with fruit, room and climate. Pomanders do not purify air, prevent illness or protect against disease; that belief belongs to pre-modern medicine. Any meaning you give a pomander at Yule is your own practice, not an ancient rule.
Practically: how to work with this
A pomander plan for this winter
- Mid-November: buy small, firm oranges or clementines, 1–2 oz of whole cloves per fruit, cinnamon and orris root.
- Day 1: tape the ribbon lines, pierce, stud densely, roll in spice. Put each in its own paper bag.
- Every day: turn it, check for soft spots, top up the spice.
- After 2–4 weeks: light, hard, hollow-sounding? Shake off the powder, remove the tape, tie the ribbon.
- Keep the spice for a simmer pot. Next winter: a drop of orange oil on the ribbon.
Frequently asked questions
Keep reading
Sources & further reading
- Wikipedia contributors, “Pomander”, accessed October 2026 (etymology, 1520 gift, 1576 goldsmith’s list, 1586 Partridge recipe, vinaigrettes).
- John Partridge, The Treasurie of Commodious Conceits, and Hidden Secrets, London, 1586.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Pomander”, German, 16th century, silver gilt, object 196980.
- Science Museum Group, “Silver gilt pomander, divides into 6 segments”, Wellcome collection, object co133042.
- Nigel Groom, The Perfume Handbook, 1992, p. 248.
- mypoppet.com.au, “How to make Orange Pomander Balls” (oven drying at about 150°F), accessed October 2026.
Drying times are maker reports. Title image: generated illustration.
Updated October 20, 2026. Related reading: blend your own loose incense · when to harvest and dry herbs · essential oils · altar & home
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