Allium cepa aggregatum group Seeds | Dutch Shallot
LATIN NAME: Allium cepa aggregatum group
COMMON NAME: Shallot
Plant Profile
The shallot is a small, clustered onion, grown for bulbs that split into a group of offsets rather than forming one large bulb. Dutch shallots are the long-keeping, red-skinned type used in professional kitchens: each planted bulb gives a cluster of six to ten, with firm flesh and a fine, sweet-sharp flavour.
Plants grow 30-40 cm high, with narrow cylindrical leaves and, in early summer, round heads of small purple flowers. The foliage dies down in July, and the bulbs are lifted and dried for storage that can run into the following spring.
Shallots belong to Allium cepa, the same species as the onion, in the aggregatum group, and they have been grown in Europe since the medieval period. The Dutch strains were selected for storage and uniformity, and they remain the standard against which other shallots are judged.
Science & Biotechnology
The flavour chemistry is the allium package: when cells are crushed, the enzyme alliinase converts flavour precursors into sulphenic acids, which rearrange into the thiosulphinates that make the eyes water. Shallots are milder than onions because they contain fewer of these precursors and more sugar, which is why they caramelise without burning as quickly.
The aggregatum habit is a bulb-forming response: the plant divides its growing point into several bulbs in one season instead of one. That is why a shallot crop is grown from sets, and why seed-grown shallots are a different proposition, producing a single bulb in the first year and a cluster only if replanted.
Storage quality depends on curing. Bulbs need two to three weeks of warm, dry, airy conditions to form a tight, papery skin, and any bulb that is thick-necked or damaged will rot in store and take its neighbours with it.
Uses & Benefits
Shallots are the workhorse of restaurant cooking: diced fine for vinaigrette, sliced into rings for pickling, roasted whole with thyme, or softened slowly as the base of a sauce. They are milder than onions raw, which is why they suit dressings, and sweeter when roasted.
In the garden a row of shallots is an efficient use of space: 20 planted bulbs become 150 or more. The crop stores without refrigeration for six months or more, and the bulbs can be replanted the following year to keep a strain going. Commercially the Dutch types dominate the European market, and the pink-skinned banana shallot is a separate, longer type.
Growing from Seed
Plant sets in late winter or early spring, 2-3 cm deep with the tip just showing, 15 cm apart in rows 25 cm apart. Firm the soil around each bulb. Shallots prefer a light, well-drained soil that held a manured crop the previous year rather than fresh manure.
Keep the row weed-free, since alliums compete poorly, and water only in dry spells. Stop watering when the foliage starts to yellow in July. Lift with a fork when the leaves have fallen, leave the bulbs on the surface for a few days to dry, then cure them in a warm airy place for two weeks before storing in a net in a cool, dry room.
Our Take
The most efficient crop in the catalogue by weight of seed planted, and the one that will still be in the cupboard next Easter.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Shallot often pair it with these related subjects: