Topic: (Vegetable) (Spanish) Onions?

[m0rq]

Hello all,

really sorry to bring this up again, but I searched all over and think I'm a little bit "lost in translation" here..

When making a base, I always used "normal" tennis-ball sized, brown onions. The ones you'll get in 1-2 Kg nets in the supermarket, no big deal.

But here in Germany, you'll also find a lot of big onions, like the size of an apple or even bigger, and they're called "Vegetable Onions" (= Gem

[Stephen Lindsay]

Hello from Scotland m0rq. I have used both kinds of onions that you mention and I can't tell any difference in the finished base. Bigger onions means less peeling though!

[chewytikka]

Hi m0rq

The orange sack onions you describe are COMMON BROWN or storage onions
They will grow similar in Germany, whether English or Dutch, all are used across the board
in BIR kitchens.
Basically good all-rounder, medium to strong flavour and ideal for base gravy and Bagar
Do a simple search - Allium cepa or maybe Sturon

I was writing a recipe and each onion from a 5kg sack of these averaged out at 110g+ each.
So 10 to 20 to 30 onions will make any good home base gravy.


The much bigger Supermarket mild onions, (size of a orange) around 4 per-KG
 work just as well m0rq, in any base gravy. Plus like you say less onions to peel.
6 years ago I posted a base gravy video recipe using these Supermarket onions
Link:https://youtu.be/5cG5n-hpHMA

Like they say, if its not broke, dont fix it...

The really big Spanish sweet and very mild, (size of a grapefruit)
which have a paper skin, not unlike a Garlic bulb are not used for base gravy in BIR.
Mainly too mild too sweet and too watery, usually rare and expensive in comparison.
Great for salads and onion rings or topping a burger bun.

cheers Chewytikka

[Invisible Mike]

Just my two penny worth but I think large Spanish onions being milder and sweeter make a far better tasting curry than Dutch or English varieties and are my number 1 choice nowadays (although Dutch are the next best choice if not available). Not only that but they tend to 'melt' softer and quicker too in my experience. Whereas with your standard cooking onions even after 3 hours can be a bit tough still. 1/2 a teaspoon of bicarb in the pan can neutralise some of the acidity of stronger varieties.  I've also seen sacks of Chilean onions that are about the same size as Spanish available but never tried them. TBF I like to buy as much British produce as possible for my cooking but curry onions are definitely one exception so it just goes to show how highly I rate them!

[m0rq]

Thank you very much for your replies! I'm now confident to try these onions in my next base on the weekend.

There are times when the smaller standard onions here are of bad quality, they're quite small, mushy on the inside, begin to have sprouts and do not look appetizing at all. On the other hand the large Spanish onions look fresh and healthy. I'm going to prefer these then and am curious how they do in the base.

Thanks again for your advice. Nothing worse than having to ditch a full pot of base because of bad ingredients. Happened to me not only once when using cabbage (which I do not use since).