by James R Coffey

Created on: December 17, 2010

Onion is found in thousands of recipes world-wide, and used by virtually all modern cultures. Available fresh, frozen, canned, caramelized, pickled, powdered, chopped, and in dehydrated forms, the whole plant is edible and is used as food in one form or another. Onions can be found chopped or sliced in almost every type of food, including cooked foods and fresh salads, and commonly added as a spicy garnish. In European cultures, onion is rarely eaten alone, but usually acts as an accompaniment to a main course. Depending on the variety (Spanish, red, Vidalia, pearl, or Maui), an onion can be sharp, spicy, tangy, pungent, mild, sweet, or a combination.

The shallot, colloquially known as the “multiplier onion,” is a variety of onion that has from time to time been classified as an onion, at other times a classification of its own due to cultural distinctions. In Australia, for example, the term “shallot” can also refer to scallions (see scallion), while the term “eschalot” is used to refer to the onion/shallot. In France, the term “shallot” is used to indicate the French gray challot or griselle, a species that grows wild from Central to Southwest Asia, which is considered by many chefs to be the true shallot.

To discerning tastes, the shallot does indeed taste like onion, but has a sweeter, milder, richer and more complex flavor. Shallots are extensively cultivated throughout the world, used fresh in cooking and in some parts of the world, for pickling. You will find finely sliced, deep-fried shallots used as a condiment in Asian cuisine. (Like onions, raw shallots release chemicals that irritate the eye when sliced that induce tears.)

The leek is a vegetable closely related to the scallion, which produces a long cylinder of bundled leaf sheaths, rather than a tight bulb like the onion. The edible portions of the leek are the white onion base and light green stalk; the dark green portion (though edible) is usually discarded since it has less flavor and is much more bitter. However, leek leaves and a selection of other herbs are sometimes tied together with twine to form a “bouquet garni,” a collection of spices dropped into soups and then retrieved just before serving.

Leek has a mild onion-like taste, less bitter than scallion, and is sometimes described as a mixture of mild onion and cucumber, with a fresh smell similar to scallion. One of the most popular uses for the leek is for adding flavor to

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