Onion cooked in salt water was the chief food of the poorest peoples of central Asia, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean region in days of old. It was also the mainstay of the diet of Egyptian labourers, who built the ancient pyramids in the third millennium B.C.
The outermost skin gives the bulb its colour, which varies, depending on the variety, from silvery white, white to dark brown, red and violet. It also protects the bulb from drying out and therefore should not be removed during storage.
The leek is a biennial herb, but is treated as an annual, because in the second year it flowers and dies. It need not be dug up in autumn for, as a rule, it is not damaged by frost and so can be taken fresh from the garden any time of the year. This is a great advantage, for although fresh leek tastes like the mildest of onions, it acquires an unpleasant strong taste when stored.
The onion's metamorphosis from a vegetable into a seasoning is also apparent in recent years by its being available at shops in dried, finely-sliced form. This is used in the same way as fresh onion and is suitable for frying.
Onion is a biennial that stores food in a bulb the first year and flowers the following year. The leaves and flowering stem are hollow. The large globose flower head - an umbel - is composed of numerous, greenish-white flowers on long stalks.
Onions always caused an irritant reaction when you look at it. As in other onions, the irritant action is produced by an essential oil containing organically bound sulphur.
The outermost skin gives the bulb its colour, which varies, depending on the variety, from silvery white, white to dark brown, red and violet. It also protects the bulb from drying out and therefore should not be removed during storage.
The leek is a biennial herb, but is treated as an annual, because in the second year it flowers and dies. It need not be dug up in autumn for, as a rule, it is not damaged by frost and so can be taken fresh from the garden any time of the year. This is a great advantage, for although fresh leek tastes like the mildest of onions, it acquires an unpleasant strong taste when stored.
The onion's metamorphosis from a vegetable into a seasoning is also apparent in recent years by its being available at shops in dried, finely-sliced form. This is used in the same way as fresh onion and is suitable for frying.
Onion is a biennial that stores food in a bulb the first year and flowers the following year. The leaves and flowering stem are hollow. The large globose flower head - an umbel - is composed of numerous, greenish-white flowers on long stalks.
Onions always caused an irritant reaction when you look at it. As in other onions, the irritant action is produced by an essential oil containing organically bound sulphur.
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