Pearl onion
Allium ampeloprasum · Allium
Top 10 pairings
The pearl onion is the marble-sized baby of the family — a tiny bulb little wider than a thumbnail, wrapped in thin papery skin over crisp, mild, faintly sweet flesh. Picked small and used whole rather than chopped, it is the onion of coq au vin and beef bourguignon, glazed and braised until glossy, folded into creamed peas and pot pies, and speared as the pickled cocktail onion that crowns a Gibson martini.
Picking a good onedrag
Just curedSprouted and soft
Firm and paperyBuy itAnything: raw in a salad, or cooked down.
SkinPapery and dry, flakes lifting
NeckDry and papery, no give
WeightFirm all over, good heft
SmellFaint dry onion, nothing sharp
These cues are Onion's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
90%
Edible part
110 g · skin and ends off
122 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.
65–75%
Humidity
Open and moving
Airflow