STORING ONIONS

• The thin skin is the best protection
• Store dark and cool and damp enough
• In original packaging or a paper bag
• Fresh onions need more moisture
• Hang your plait of garlic

Onions are a sustainable vegetable that can be stored for a long time. The thin skin forms an effective protection against the outside world.

Dark and cool

Store onions in a dark and cool place that isn’t too damp. Close to zero degrees (but not below) is the optimum. What you’re aiming towards when storing onions is to slow down the onion’s living processes and limit its desire to grow.

It’s best to keep them in the original packaging. The material and the design will have been produced to keep the contents fresh for as long as possible.

Store in a cool place – not cold

Store onions in the vegetable section of the fridge – but don’t keep it too cold. Onions kept in too cold a place can get brown marks which turn into sugars. A cool cellar or a pantry is in fact better.

Not in plastic

Condensation will form in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge, and that isn’t good for onions. It’s better to use a net or a paper bag.

At room temperature

Onions will do better in a bowl in the kitchen if the air is dry, but the light will make them sprout in a few weeks. A dry place in a dark fridge is better.

Storing leeks and spring onions

Leeks and spring onions need a bit more moisture than ordinary onions.

Storing garlic

• Store garlic in a dark, dry place and it will keep for months.
• Better cool than cold, and ideally hanging.
• Whole heads of garlic keep longer than individual cloves. Don’t remove the protective peel.
• Fresh garlic – the one with a green stalk that appears in the spring – doesn’t keep for very long.

Onion adds flavor

Keep in mind that the flavor of onion – especially garlic – can spread to other foods, e.g. an open pot of yoghurt or cream, if you store them in the same place.