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Onion

used both as a general term, applying to many members of the extensive genus Allium, and as a specific one referring to regular round (globe) onions of the species Allium cepa. The box shows what other entries there are, and how the botanical species relate to common names. Of the names shown in the box, the ones which constantly cause confusion are spring onions and scallions. Usage varies to such an extent that no generally valid definitions can be given.

The present entry is concerned with mature onions of the species A. cepa. The original wild ancestor of this, the common onion, has long since disappeared; but related wild species still grow in C. Asia. The whole diverse onion family evidently arose in this area, although it is now disseminated throughout the world.

Onions have been eaten and cultivated since prehistoric times. They were mentioned in records of the 1st dynasty of ancient Egypt (3200 bc), and constantly appeared in Egyptian tomb paintings, inscriptions, and documents from this time on. The even older civilization of Ur has left accounts (c.2100 bc) of onions being grown in gardens.

Attitudes to the onion in Egypt, as Darby et al. (1977) remark, had a dual quality; it seemed to be simultaneously the object of appreciation and reverence on the one hand and of taboos on the other. Priests were forbidden to eat onions. (Taboos on the eating of onions are not confined to Egypt; in India, some Brahmins, strict Buddhists, and Jains also abstain from them.)

What is certain is that in ancient Egypt as in ancient Greece and Rome the common people ate onions in large quantities, often raw. Ancient Egyptian onions were said to be large, white, and mild, ideal for the purpose. However, they would still have imparted a smell to the breath, which may have been the reason why the upper classes did not care to eat them. It is probably significant that recipes of Apicius gave them little importance; they are mentioned only as subordinate flavourings in mixed dishes and dressings.

Just as now, onions in the classical period varied in pungency, and there were recognized varieties. It seems to have been one variety of white onion which, in late Latin, bore the name unio, meaning a single white pearl, and leading to the French word oignon as well as the English ‘onion’. The complicated etymology of words for onion in other languages has been deftly summarized by Ayto (1993).

Once the Romans had introduced the onion to Britain, it stayed put and has ever afterwards been an important part of the diet. Anglo-Saxon verse riddles often concern onions, including the following one (as cited by Lovelock, 1972), which sustains a double meaning with remarkable persistence:

I am a wonderful thing, a joy to women …I stand up high and steep over the bed;Beneath I am shaggy. Sometimes comes nighA young maiden and handsome peasant's daughter,A maiden proud, to lay hold on me,She raises my redness, plunders my head,Fixes on me fast, feels straightawayWhat meeting me means when she thus approaches,A curly haired woman. Wet is the eye.

The cultivated onion was introduced to the New World by Columbus on his second voyage to Haiti (1493–4), and thereafter by the early colonists. Although some minor wild onions are native to the Americas there was nothing to compare with the new kind, and American Indians took to it (and even more so to garlic) with enthusiasm.

Varieties

Over the millennia since onion cultivation began, many different types of round onion have been bred. Size varies, from small pickling onions about 1 cm (0.5″) in diameter to huge specimens weighing more than 500 g (1 lb), sometimes more. (In 1980, for example, a new record was established by a Mr Rodger with an onion bulb grown in his council house garden in Scotland, weighing almost exactly 6.5 lbs). Colours may be white, brown, yellow, or red. Flavour ranges from very mild to strong, whether harshly biting or simply with a pronounced flavour.

Nomenclature among growers and in commerce is not internationally standardized, and the only advice which can be given is to ‘know your onions’ (a phrase from the 1920s) by the names used where you live. With this proviso, the categories or varieties most commonly on sale in western countries are as follows:

• Spanish onions are a large category of generally mild globe onions. (White Sweet Spanish, in contrast, is a cultivar name.)
• Bermuda onions are another category, including a number of varieties whose characteristics differ to some extent, although Red Bermuda, White Bermuda, and Yellow Bermuda are all mild.
• Hybrid onions include a couple of American favourites, both of the Yellow Granex type: Vidalia, named after the town in Georgia around which growing is concentrated; and Maui, named after the Hawaiian island in whose volcanic soil and cool climate this onion is at its sweetest. Not a hybrid, but often listed along with Vidalia and Maui, is the variety Walla-Walla Sweet, which was apparently brought to Walla-Walla in the state of Washington from Corsica at the beginning of the 20th century.

The above notes merely scratch the surface of a huge subject, which is continually evolving as growers and agricultural research stations develop new varieties.

The number of dishes in which onions play a supporting role, whether to add flavour or serve as a garnish, is vast. Those in which it is the principal ingredient are relatively few and are mostly European. Stuffed onion (popular in Britain), onion soup (whether French or not), and Alsatian onion tart are three examples. An example for Asia is onion bhaji.

The French term soubise (for an 18th-century prince of the family of that name) indicates the presence of onion, either in a sauce or in the form of a purée (often thickened with rice). Eliza Acton (1845) noted that the sauce was usually served with lamb or mutton cutlets; and while mutton was available in England there was certainly a preference for serving onion sauce with it.

Dorothy Hartley (1954) supplies an admirable coda to the subject:

The papery golden skins of onions should not be thrown away. They are good natural colouring for soups and stews. Broth should always be made golden and delectable by cooking the skins in it.

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