Shallot

Échalote

What it is

Its name remembers Ascalon, the ancient port from which crusaders reportedly carried it home. The onion’s finishing-school graduate, it underwrites half of French sauce-making — béarnaise, beurre blanc, red-wine reductions, the mignonette on your oysters — while almost never being named on the menu.

In the kitchen

Mince it fine and sweat it without colour: browned shallot turns bitter where onion turns sweet. Raw in a vinaigrette, ten minutes in the vinegar first tames it.

Goes with

Butter Tarragon Mustard Oyster Cream

Same species

Arleux smoked garlic Banana shallot Black garlic Calçot Cévennes sweet onion Chives

Also used with

Absinthe Pauillac lamb Salt marsh lamb Aiguillette baronne Allis shad Andaliman

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