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Buying and Storing Onions

If you are like us, you use a lot of onions in your cooking. We usually buy large white storage onions, Sweet Vidalia Onions, and occasionally, little green onions. They work fine, but there is more to onions than just that.

A little research tells us that onions can be classified into two groups: sweet spring and summer onions and storage onions. The sweet spring and summer onions usually come from the warmer states: Vidalia onions from Georgia, Maui Sweet from Hawaii, and Walla Walla from Washington. They don’t store well but they are mild and sweet with a high sugar content, best suited for baking or eating raw.

Storage onions are grown in northern states, harvested in late summer, and cured before they are shipped. You can tell them by their dry crackling skins and pungent flavor.

Which should you buy? Whatever you like. We like the mild sweet onions for baking. The more pungent storage onions are great in stews and main dishes. The longer that you cook an onion, the milder it becomes. So for long cooking casseroles, the pungent storage onions make sense.

There is a great deal of variance in the taste of onions even of the same variety. Onions differ in taste depending on soil and growing conditions. So experiment around and find the onions that you like.

Choose onions that are firm with no soft spots. They should smell mild and the skin around the neck should be narrow and tight. Avoid onions with green areas or dark areas as they may taste unpleasant.

We typically buy large onions. They are more efficient than peeling smaller onions. If we don’t use the entire onion, the remainder can be stored for a few days wrapped in plastic and refrigerated but they will last longer in a plastic or glass container where a little air circulates around the onion and the onion is given a chance to breathe.

Keep uncut onions in a cool area away from light. Don’t pack them too tightly; they need air to circulate around them. And keep them dry; onions will absorb moisture.

Dry storage onions will keep for three or four weeks in good conditions. Sweet summer onions will keep for a week to ten days in good conditions. You can extend the storage life of sweet onions a few days by storing them in the refrigerator. Uncut, dry storage onions should not be refrigerated. High humidity, light, or lack of air circulation all reduce storage times. If they start to sprout, use them immediately.