What are the roots of this recipe for skillet spanish rice from the 1953
edition of the Better Homes and Garden cookbook (p 172)?

4 slices of bacon
1 cp chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
2 10 1/2 or 11 oz cans condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup rice (uncooked, pref medium grained)
1/2 cup water
4 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt

Cut bacon in small pieces, fry until crisp in heavy skillet, remove.

Cook onion and green pepper in bacon fat until golden. Add remaining
ingredietns; cover tightly and cook 45 minutes. Stir occasionally. Remove
cloves and bay leaf; sprinkle crisp bacon over top. Makes 5-6 servings.

The cloves are a particularly quixotic idea.

Is American spanish rice really a creole dish, if so please elaborate, and
where did the notion of adding cloves come from?

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Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX