What we have here…is a failure to communicate. Some terms:
Vidalia onions are a type of sweet onion that is yellow in color, grown in soil that makes them sweeter than regular sweet onions also yellow in color.
Sweet onions are also called spring onions, fresh onions or summer onions. These have a relatively soft, thin outer skin and are not for long term storage. They’re pretty mild,a nd the best kind of onion sliced raw on a hamburger. here. They are often called yellow onions because they are yellow, but they’re not storage onions.
The other kind of yellow onion is a storage onion, often called simply “yellow onion”. It’s got a thicker, dryer skin and is a darker golden yellow color outside, It’s got a stronger flavor, and is rarely used raw by cooks in the know. It’s the kind I can’t find right now except in huge ginormous size. They are the “default” onion in American cooking. If a recipe doesn’t say what kind of onion, chances are very good the chef meant storage onions. here.
A white onion, pictured above the storage onion at the link above, is white outside, and has a tangier flavor. It’s mostly used cooked or diced fine in Mexican cooking.
Dang, what are white onions up to now? I just bought two whole bags of them the other day without paying attention to price, because, you know, they’re what they are and what they are is always reasonable. Yeah, I got bit by the same snag a couple of years ago when I unwittingly paid some obscene amount during a tomato blight. Do we have to look at the prices of everything these days? Up until now I only really pay attention to avocados’ prices because they change so much.
“Regular” yellow onions are not sweet. The sweet ones are either Vidalia or other varieties we get from Latin America, especially Chile or Peru, sometimes Mexico. These all have yellow skins and white interiors. If you want a really sweet one, pick one that’s relatively flat. Flat = sweet. I use the stronger ones for cooking (a little goes a long way) and the sweeter ones for salads.
Where I shop they have all kinds of onions, though I haven’t checked the prices.
WhyNot, we’re kinda in the same area - we’ve had the same problem (we usually go to Dominick’s) and have had to use the large yellow onions as a substitute. The last few bags of the small ones that we’ve purchased have been just awful - rotting, bad spots, etc. We don’t even waste the money on them anymore. Why that is? I do not know - I just know we have to buy onions loose now - no more mesh bags for us.
I just bought a white onion at the local supermarket the day before yesterday. Since I only bought one, and rarely buy them at all, I didn’t take notice of the price.
WhyNot, ignorance fought, thank you… in my defence, I don’t think our supermarket stocks “storage” onions, so the only Yellows I’ve had familiarity with were the vidalias.
Unlike most of the brand name sweet onions, the Vidalia (the locals say “Vah-dayl-ya,” and the “L” sound is barely audible) is a geographical trademark. Anybody can grow the same Granex onion the Vidalians grow, but unless it’s grown in the Vidalia area, it can’t be sold as a Vidalia onion. By contrast, if you grow a crop of Walla Walla Sweet onions in Tennessee, (Walla Walla is in Washington state) you can sell them as Walla Wallas.
The soil around Vidalia, Georgia, USA is special, and it somehow grows sweeter veggies.* They’re starting to market Vidalia® carrots, too.
*That’s the Vidalians’ claim, and I’m not going to argue with it. If your local onions rival their sweetness, I’m not gonna argue that, either.
I just got back from the store. They had yellow, white and red, all for 1.48/lb., and Vidalias on sale for 0.99 (got me a bunch of flat ones). No indication of any shortage of whites.
Is there a Shop & Save near you? I just bought a 3-pound mesh sack of yellow onions on Saturday, and they also sell 'em loose. Small to medium size (I think the largest one in the sack is grabs measuring tape about 2 inches) and all the rest are smaller.
I’m somewhat of an anomaly, I guess, because I use 'em for cooking and also slice 'em to put in sandwiches raw. I like the “bite” of them.
There’s your problem! (For those outside of the Chicago area, Dominick’s is Safeway.) Go to a Butera or one of those Mexican Centrellas that are popping up all over and get some produce that looks and tastes like PRODUCE. Great prices, too, and the lunch meat costs HALF what it does at Jewel (Albertson’s) or Dominick’s.
The Roger’s Park Fruit Market (one of “those Mexican places” and the Oakton Market (one of “those Armenian (I think?) places”) only have summer onions, not storage onions. I don’t think we have Butera this far north. There is a Food4Less, but I haven’t had luck there, either - but their produce selection is very variable at the best of times, it seems.
Really, what I was expecting was, “Oh, yeah, there was a blight on storage onions last fall so we won’t get any 'till November, duh!” But no one’s heard anything like that, huh?
And right down the street from me is Eurofresh - home of the cheapest and yes, freshest produce around and I should really go there more often. But, it’s a trip in the opposite direction, a pain in the ass to park there, the lines are long, it’s crowded, it’s not on the way home from the bar, and I am inherently lazy.
I’ll hit them this weekend and check the onions out - thanks for the reminder!
Huh. I’m in Rogers Park, and the Store Locator for Shop and Save gives their closest store as over 200 miles away in Jerseyville. Do they have a different name up here?
And yeah, Des Plaines is too far for economical every week shopping, although I’m not adverse to stopping if we’re in the area for something else.
Eurofresh is cheap? I’d’ve guessed the opposite with a name like that, especially in the NW burbs. But you can’t get much more European than Aldi’s and they’re cheap. False assumptions fought!
edited to add some indications that area was my stomping grounds MANY years ago: But that Japanese place where Klemm’s Nursery used to be, THAT was 'SPENSIVE!
