ESCHALLOT

This multiplier onion is the true "eschalote" of the French. It comes in a wide range of flavours as well as skin colours such as red, grey, brown and yellow. The base of the eschallot is composed of about twelve onions lightly attached to one another, and its leaves are tubular like an onion's, but shorter and thinner. Eschallots should not be confused with spring onions which some people call shallots.
Early settlers called eschallots potato onions. Nowadays they are also called French shallots.

Plant Names
Botanical Family: 
AMARYLLIDACEAE
Common Name: 
ESCHALLOT
Genus: 
Allium
Species: 
cepaaggregatum
About the Name: 

allium is Latin for garlic, ke-pa for onion and aggregatum refers to their habit of clumping. The eschallot used to be classified Allium ascalonicum which is believed to derive from Ascalon, a town in Syria.

Origins: 

It is another crop which originated in the rich fertile crescent where agriculture took off 9000 years ago – mainly in the foothills of Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Jordan.

Plant Description: 

This multiplier onion is the true "eschalote" of the French. It comes in a wide range of flavours as well as skin colours such as red, grey, brown and yellow. The base of the eschallot is composed of about twelve onions lightly attached to one another, and its leaves are tubular like an onion's, but shorter and thinner. Eschallots should not be confused with spring onions which some people call shallots.
Early settlers called eschallots potato onions. Nowadays they are also called French shallots.

Variety Notes: 

Well-known to early Australian settlers, eschallots are worth collecting from older folks before the traditional strains completely disappear. They may be called all sorts of misleading names but "Bulb Shallots" and "Potato Onions" are the most recognized names in Australia. There is great diversity to be found here. Commercial crops of a small red variety are grown on Queensland's Atherton Tablelands in the cooler seasons. The Golden Jersey Shallot is grown in summer in Victoria. They are now sold in many Asian shops. Michael and Janet Boddy's Kitchen Talk Newsletter (No. 8) had much to say about them:
“Traditionally, planting of the French shallots is done on the shortest day of the year and lifting on the longest day of the year when the leaves are decaying. In northern France, where many different type of shallots are grown, each region uses its own and treats with humorous contempt the shallots of another region. Normandy shallots for instance, mild and piquant, are very like the ones we can buy here. Burgundy shallots, aromatic and pungent, are elongated in shape, and grey.
The dishes that each region produces, such as moules marinieres (mussels in white wine) in Normandy or coq au Chambertin in Burgundy are, obviously enough, best served by the type of shallot that grows in that region.”

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