Plant
Shallot
Allium cepa var. aggregatum
Also known as: Allium cepa var. aggregatum, Allium ascalonicum, échalote, hành tím
A small clustered bulb in the onion family — botanically the same species as the common onion (*Allium cepa*) but in the cultivar group that forms tight clusters of small elongated bulbs joined at the base rather than one large round bulb. Milder, sweeter, and more aromatic than common onion; foundational to French sauce-making (*beurre blanc*, *bordelaise*, mignonette), to Southeast Asian cooking (Thai *hom daeng*, Vietnamese *hành tím*, Indonesian *bawang merah*, the base of countless curry pastes and crispy fried-shallot garnishes), and to Persian, Levantine, and South Indian cuisines. France, the Netherlands, India, and Indonesia are major producers.
Scientific
The shallot is Allium cepa var. aggregatum (or in older taxonomy Allium ascalonicum) — recent molecular work has confirmed it as a cultivar group within the common onion species rather than a separate species. The plant differs from common onion in producing a cluster of 2–8 smaller elongated bulbs from a single planted bulb rather than one large bulb from seed, and in milder, more aromatic, slightly sweeter flavor. Skin colors range from coppery brown (the European Jersey and Grise types) to deep pink-purple (the Southeast Asian hom daeng / hành tím / bawang merah) to grey (the Grise / Griselle, prized in French cooking).
Cultivation is mostly by vegetative propagation — bulbs from one season are planted to produce the next, much like garlic — rather than by seed. Some commercial production now uses seed-grown shallots that produce single bulbs the first year and cluster in subsequent generations.
Cultural
The Southeast Asian small pink-purple shallot is the dominant allium of the region’s cooking, far more present than the large round onion familiar in Western cuisines. Thai nam phrik, Vietnamese thịt kho, Burmese ohn-no kauk-swè, Indonesian sambal and gado-gado, Malaysian rendang, and Sri Lankan sambol all build on shallot as the base aromatic. Deep-fried sliced shallots — hành phi, kha-li-yo, bawang goreng — are a defining garnish across the region.
European shallot use centers on French cuisine, where the shallot is the small-aromatic-onion of choice in classical sauces. Beurre blanc and bordelaise both depend on shallot, and the raw-shallot mignonette over oysters is a deep French oyster-bar tradition. Persian shalott (yogurt with raw shallot) is the shalgam / mast-o-mūsīr of Iranian cuisine; South Indian sambar and rasam preparations use small shallots (sambar onions) rather than the large round onion.
Global production
China, India, the Netherlands, France, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam are major producers. Indonesia produces the largest crop in Southeast Asia, with Brebes (Central Java) historically the major shallot-growing region. French shallot production is concentrated in Brittany and the Loire Valley.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: [[onion]] · [[garlic]]
- Member of: [[plants]]
Sources
- INRAE / French Ministry of Agriculture shallot statistics
- USDA Agricultural Research Service — Allium cepa aggregatum
- Wikipedia — Shallot
A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].
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Scientific
shares approach with
- Scallion fellow Allium small-aromatic; shallot is the clustered-bulb cultivar group within A. cepa, scallion the non-bulbing perennial A. fistulosum
1 inbound link · 3 outbound