Onions

If there was such a thing as a culinary epiphany, I think Maman Blanc gently sweating onions in butter has got to be a strong contender for me. How could something that brought tears of pain nearly produce tears of joy? How could such a now humble vegetable be so important to cooking? I am talking of the common or garden variety of bulb onion. On a side note, never has an English expression been so offensive to me, just because it is common does not mean it is bad and the fact that it grows in the garden is derogatory? The culinary French know a good thing; “occupe toi de tes oignons” (look after your onions) means mind your own business. I rest my case. Back to onions, again. They are part of the Allium genus with garlic, shallots, leeks and chives. Should be Allium genius really. Onions are essential ingredients pretty much throughout the world; stick a pin in a world map, think of a local dish and the chances are there are onions in there somewhere. So where did this globally successful invader come from? There is no wild version of the “common” onion, it has always been cultivated. Well my dear readers, I’m afraid that the humble onion, is not ready to divulge its origins that easily. The nearest wild species can be found in central Asia notably Iran. How it got around is a detective story with the last age missing. Bronze age settlements in Europe have yielded traces of onions but no cookery books. The Egyptians are the first to leave a trail, the onion was elevated to a god like status (something to do with the rings and eternal life) They were eaten by the good and the great and even used in burial rituals of kings. As with many things the Greeks and then the Roman’s took the baton. The Greeks gave it a medical leaning (thinning of the blood) whilst the Romans continued in a therapeutic vain rubbing the muscles of gladiators to firm them up. It was however during the middle ages that the onion reached mythical heights of medical goodness. The list is endless: hair loss, Viagra substitute, headaches, cough, and digestion problems. Oddly enough across the globe, some religious sects shunned the onions for their “hot” properties. The bulb reached such mythical properties it was even used as currency. On his 1492 expedition Columbus took onions and they invaded the Americas. The march south from its roots (sorry) in central Asia is really not documented, but I would imagine, like many other things followed the trade roots. And that seems to be it, but then I discover that there are records of the onion being grown in China 3000 BC, about the same time the Pharaohs were placing them in their eyes and private areas (once dead), so I  give up.

Completely forgot to talk about the name, it is derived from the Latin unio, meaning the one, and one thing we know about onions is: we really don’t know where they came from and to use a better English expression “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” (but don’t feed them onions it’s bad for them)