Shallot

Origin & history

The Romans knew it as cepa ascalonia, “onion from Ascalon” — by way of the French échalote that became our shallot. Botanically it is not a species of its own but a form of the kitchen onion: the aggregatum group, which forms a cluster of daughter bulbs instead of a single bulb. In French cooking it is the standard onion for sauces and vinaigrettes; the traditional varieties are propagated purely vegetatively and are therefore clones maintained over generations.

Varieties

Among planting shallots there are the roundish types such as “Golden Gourmet” or “Red Sun”, which form large clusters with many daughter bulbs, and the elongated French varieties such as “Longor” or “Jermor” with finer flavour and fewer bulbs per cluster. There are also seed shallots, raised from seed, which usually set only one or two bulbs per plant — cheaper to buy but less characteristic in taste. Your own planting stock can be carried on for years; once yields drop noticeably, certified virus-free material is worth buying.

Care

Shallots want to go in early; frost does not bother them. Freshly planted they have no roots yet and birds like to pull them straight back out — a net or some brushwood for two or three weeks settles that. After that the main work is shallow hoeing, because they too lose out to weeds. Water only in longer dry spells and stop altogether from the end of June so the cluster ripens off cleanly; break out any emerging flower stalks at once.

What can go wrong

On heavy, wet soils the clusters rot away from below — there it is better to set the bulbs on a small raised ridge and work in sand or well-rotted compost first. Like all alliums, shallots belong in a rotation with at least four years’ gap, because the pathogens persist in the soil for years. Against the onion fly, whose larvae hollow out the bulbs, a fleece over the row until early June is the answer; very large sets also tend to bolt, so medium-sized ones are the better choice.

Harvest, storage & kitchen

Harvest when the foliage yellows and falls over: lift the whole cluster and only split it into single bulbs after two to three weeks of curing somewhere airy. Well dried, shallots keep cool and dark into spring, longer than most kitchen onions. Put the best medium-sized ones aside as planting stock for next year. In the kitchen they melt away almost completely when braised and thicken a sauce as a result — but they catch and burn faster than onions.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a shallot and an onion?

One planted shallot splits into a cluster of several small daughter bulbs, while an onion set swells into a single large bulb. Shallots stay smaller, taste finer and less pungent, and in the garden they are nearly always grown from bulbs rather than seed.

When, how deep and how far apart do you plant shallots?

From the start of March to mid-April, around 3 cm deep and with the tip still showing, spaced 15 cm along the row and 25 cm between rows. The generous spacing pays off, because the cluster pushes outwards as it fills out.

When are shallots harvested?

From early July into the second half of August, two to three weeks ahead of most onions. Lift them sooner and you get mild fresh shallots that have to be used straight away; only a cluster left to ripen off on its foliage will keep through to spring.

Can you plant shallots bought at the supermarket?

It sometimes works, but it is a gamble: culinary bulbs are often treated to suppress sprouting and can carry disease in from other growing regions. Certified planting stock, or your own well-dried bulbs from last year, sprout far more reliably.

Can you eat shallot greens?

Yes, the young hollow leaves can be snipped like chives and taste mildly of shallot. Take only a little from each plant, though: every leaf you remove costs the bulbs below some size.