A guided tour of garlic and onions

Epicurious.com

Bulb vegetables which include onions, garlic, and ramps -- all related and members of the lily family -- are usually just culinary accents: Add in small amounts, and they'll make a dish come alive with aromatic undertones. When used raw, they add a punch to salads and salsas. But the real magic takes place when they're cooked: A light sauté or slow roast mellows their pungent, acrid flavors and coaxes out their natural sweetness.

There are many different ways to categorize bulb vegetables, so named because we consume the bulb. "Spring" bulbs, such as scallions and ramps, need refrigeration. Look for greens that are neither limp nor brown, and white bulbs that are firm. "Storage" bulbs are more typically onion-like -- round, thin-skinned vegetables that can simply be kept out in a dark, dry place. Chives are technically related to onions and garlic but are generally considered to be an herb.

For seeds, visit your local plant nursery or visit online stores such as John Scheepers' Kitchen Garden Seeds.

For buying and preparation advice for these bulb vegetables, check out our tips.


Spanish onion

Characteristics: This storage onion is relatively mild but not as much as sweet onions. Round, with a thin, brownish, papery skin, Spanish onions are the most common type of onion in the United States . Pictured is a yellow Spanish onion, but they are also available as red and white. If a recipe simply calls for "an onion," a Spanish onion is the one to use. For recipes using Spanish onions, click here




Shallots

Alternate Names: Gray Shallot, Red Shallot
Characteristics: The shallot often looks more like garlic than an onion because of its small, bulbous cluster and thin dry coppery-brown skin. Individual shallot cloves resemble oversized garlic cloves with their pointed tapered ends, except that the shallot possesses a luminescent purple hue. Its flavor is milder than an onion's, but its bite is still sharp when uncooked. While the French incorporate the shallot into many dishes, it's also popular throughout southeast Asian cuisine, as in Goreng Bawang, an Indonesian recipe for fried shallots. For recipes using shallots, click here



White onion

Characteristics: This storage onion is named for the color of its thin skin and flesh. With a taste that's more tangy than sweet or sour, this is the onion of choice when making Latin and Central American dishes, especially Mexican food.
For recipes using white onions, click here





Garlic

Characteristics: A truly international vegetable, garlic is sold many ways: whole bulb, already-peeled cloves, pre-sliced, and minced. At the farmers' market, newly harvested garlic is sometimes sold with the curled green stems still attached to the bulb, the ends of which are called "scapes." (Scapes can be prepared and consumed in a myriad of ways: finely chopped, sautéed, and served like chives and scallions.) An unpeeled garlic clove doesn't have a very strong scent, but once the clove's body has been damaged, a pungent odor is released. To get garlic that's sweet and fragrant, either sauté or roast it. But be careful not to burn the garlic, which will result in an acrid smell.
For recipes using garlic, click here



Pearl onions


Characteristics: These very small onions are valued for their sweet, delicate flavor and are usually served as an accompaniment. Pearl onions can be creamed, roasted, or glazed (Italians use balsamic vinegar; Middle Easterners apply tamarind). Pickled pearl onions make a great garnish to the classic martini. And since peeling such small onions can be a chore, look for frozen pre-peeled ones at your market.
For recipes using pearl onions, click here



Red onion

Alternate name: Purple onion
Characteristics: The bright reddish-purple skin makes this onion hard to miss; it's a favorite ingredient in salads. To many palates, red onions have the sharpest flavor in the family, so use uncooked red onions sparingly. To soften the taste, chill raw onions in ice water for 20 minutes before serving.
For recipes using red onions, click here


Sweet onions

Alternate names: Fresh onion, spring onion, summer onion
Pictured, top to bottom: Bermuda , Vidalia
Characteristics: These storage onions are sweet because they have a lower concentration of sulfur allowing the sugar content to stand out. People who like onions but dislike the strong taste, will find sweet onions a good alternative. Some people even consume them raw, like ripe fruit. Besides Vidalia and Bermuda (whose name refers to a time when most onions imported to the U.S. were grown in Bermuda), other well-known sweet varieties, grown primarily in parts of the South, Southwest, and Northwest United States, include Walla Walla, Maui, Sweet Imperial, and Texas Spring Sweet. These don't keep as well as other storage onions, so try to use them up as soon as possible.
For recipes using sweet onions, click here



Ramps

Alternate names: Tennessee truffles, wild leek, ramson, wild leek, ail des bois
Characteristics: This North American native spring onion is edible in its entirety, from the tops of its lily of the valley -- like leaves and stems, all the way down to the bulb. Eaten raw, a ramp tastes strong and more like garlic than scallion, but if cooked, its flavor turns mildly sweet. When serving, try to keep the entire plant intact for a lovely presentation.
For recipes using ramps, click here




Scallions

Alternate names: Green onion, bunching onion, Chinese onion, Welsh onion
Characteristics: This spring onion's flavorful bite makes it a popular ingredient in Asian cooking, as exemplified in the classic Korean Seafood Pancake. Some recipes may specify using only the long green hollow leaves or the white bulbous ends, but the scallion is entirely edible. Recipes usually require that scallions be chopped. Scallions are interchangeable with ramps. Don't let them languish in the fridge; use soon after purchase.
For recipes using scallions, click here




Cipollini

Alternate names: Cipollini onion, Italian pearl onion
Characteristics: This Italian onion doesn't look like cousins, thanks to its flat top and squat shape, but it is growing in popularity -- and availability -- in the U.S. Its taste is less acrid than that of its relatives, making it ideal for creamed or glazed onions. And because of the cipollinis' size and shape, they're easy to cook and serve whole. Try them roasted or grilled on skewers.
For recipes using cipolline, click here


Photos by Chris Astley


Esther Sung first joined Epicurious.com in 2006. Prior to this, she spent several years in book publishing, including at Harper Entertainment, where the proverbial three-martini lunch was sadly nowhere to be found. When not in the office, she moonlights at the Bottle Shoppe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and through this she has developed a fondness for Syrah and Malbec. A quasi-vegetarian, she admits to having relished eating

yuk hwe, a Korean raw beef dish.



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