Pearl / cocktail onion (silverskin)
Allium cepa · Allium
Top 10 pairings
The silverskin is the smallest, whitest pearl onion — a marble of a bulb barely wider than a pea, sheathed in a thin, silvery-white papery skin over crisp, translucent flesh. Grown to be pickled rather than cooked, it is the tangy little cocktail onion speared into a Gibson, scattered through a jar of mixed pickles, and set out on the relish tray, prized for a firm, sharp bite that no cut onion could keep.
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