Hue and Cry
The Onion Family
By Susan Belsinger and Carolyn Dille
February/March 1995
Recipes:
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When a skillet of onions is sautéing, everyone who walks into the house asks, “What smells so good?” Whether the onions are browning quickly to garnish a steak sandwich, caramelizing slowly for a tart filling, or simply softening as the base for a soup, stew, or sauce, their olfactory appeal is universal. Not even garlic, another member of the onion family, whets the appetite as satisfyingly.
Onions (Allium cepa) are essential to all of the world’s cuisines. Their bulbs come in a variety of shapes—round, flattened, torpedo—and colors—red, white, and yellow. Mature onions range in size from tiny pearl onions and the small flat onions (cipolline) that Italians pickle to giant bulbs the size of soccer balls. In addition, some do not form bulbs at all or are harvested when immature as scallions (these are also called green, spring, or bunching onions). Most of these have a white stalk and green top, but at least one cultivar, Red Beard, has a red stalk. All tend to be mild in flavor.
Each form of onion has named cultivars that are prized for their particular flavor, which may be mild, sweet, or hot. Regional and seasonal specialties include Bermuda, Maui, Sweet Spanish, Texas 1015, Vidalia, and Walla Walla. The Bermuda onion can be hot, while the rest are known for their surprising sweetness and are good eaten raw. As one can tell from some of the names, these onions are grown in particular areas where the soil and climate affect their sweetness. Add leeks (A. porrum), with their thick, white, mild-flavored stalks, and shallots (A. ascalonicum), whose bulbs separate into cloves with a mild garlic flavor—close relatives to garlic that are used similarly in cooking—and it is clear that the art of cooking would be unrecognizable without the versatility that these plants allow us in the kitchen.
To cook without onions is like playing a symphony without strings: it can be done, but the results do not resonate so harmoniously, for cooked onions provide a sweet and broad flavor foundation for thousands of dishes.
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