Yes, yes I know that Vidalias are poised to appear(YAY) but in recent years decent sweet onions — flat shaped— have appeared in the void times that were nearly as good and were available the rest of the year. I think the best ones were from Peru but ymmv. At least they were available. This year, everywhere I shopped, the sweet onions were round and looked and tasted like regular yellow onions. HOT! I got a sandwich a couple of days ago where the onions nearly blew my head off. Has something happened? Is it tariffs or supply chain issues? I’ve ordered a carton of Vidalias, out of caution. Or desperation…
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Vidalia and WallaWalla onions owe their ‘sweetness’ to a lack of sulfur in the soils where they are grown.
that said, “supposedly” both Mexico and Peru have areas suitable to produce similar sweetness without the sulfur ‘hots’ - unless, of course, somebody cheats . . .
Oh, I know about the sulfur; the problem is I can’t find any of these other onions this year- and they were always available in years past.
AFAIK, ( which admittedly isn’t very much) Vidalia/ sweet onions are planted in October, so they should be coming to market very soon. A Texas friend has said that they are referred to as 1085’s there. Maybe they are a little later than usual due to weather conditions.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never come across “sweet onions” in the UK. Interesting that they exist. Do they have particular uses in the States for which you can’t use normal onions?
They are mostly intended for raw applications , such as on a burger.
Generally, they are milder with less “sting”, the last time I bought them, I found them to be very moist.
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Maybe he meant 1015s? There’s a famous sweet onion developed at Texas A&M (also called “Aggie onions”). The 1015 is based on the October 15th “best planting date”.
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I m getting 10 lbs of Vidal sent to me. What I haven’t been able to find this year are the good, sweet onions - particularly from Peru - that are similar to Vidalias. As a matter of fact I think Bland Farms oversees their production in areas other than Georgia, where the Vidalias must be grown in order to be called Vidalias.
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Agree that sweet onions are more round than they’ve been in past years. I’m wondering if 1015s and Walla Wallas, etc. are being grown elsewhere with higher sulphur content soil. OR are they sitting longer in storage, where sugars will decrease and pungency increases.
Correct, that was my typo.
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I’m desperate for a Vidalia onion sandwich!
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With mayo and edges rolled in parsley à la James Beard?
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Roll me in the parsley! Actually, I just use Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread and trim the crusts off, and Duke’s mayo. I’d die of starvation if I hade to get out the cutter and make little rounds. That’s a job for the palace staff…
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I’ve been buying Peruvian sweet onions all winter and they have been sweet. The Vidalias i bought for weeks last summer were sweet, like they’ve always been.
I haven’t been able to find Peruvian sweets anywhere!!
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They do have a lot of moisture and huge, thick rings. The moisture allegedly makes them unsuitable for some recipes-I’ve seen some that admonish the cook not to use Vidalias- I’m thinking maybe caramelizing for onion soup-so yes, they’re primarily beloved for raw eating.
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Real Vidalia and their best imitators started out as relatively expensive items for the premium market. As usual, this lead to a producer surge of not quite Vidalias, then generic “sweet” onions, and now just about any onion can appear in the stores as “sweet onions” if there is a sign saying so. It is Gresham’s Law: Bad X drives out good X, applied to onions.
I remember seeking out Maui sweets at a long-closed gourmet market 35 years ago.
Inverse of Gresham, whose theory was you’d first spend the version of money of same nominal value, but made of less valued metal. The inverse here: more growers sell “sweet” less costly to produce, not more esteemed location-constrained Vidalia, for same return.
Gresham applied in today’s coins not so often used for transaction economy, the crumpled dirty paper money comes out of wallet before unused/crisp bills from ATM.
They dont have the “afterburn” of a regular onion, so they’re really tasty used raw in salads or sandwiches where that bite tends to overwhelm other flavors.
I have sauteed them (and yes they have more liquid) for a classic Vidalia onion pie or a tomato-onion pie. Both are old-school Southern cooking and well worth the effort. (It’s not quiche, but definitely have an invite to the egg-based family reunion)
Lots of people use them because they tend to not repeat or cause bad breath as objectionable as Spanish or white onions.
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