There is a kind of a poll in here too, but the main question is the one in the title so its probably still OK for GQ.
What type (colour, size, strength) of onion is called what, in Spain itself? Do they refer to anything as a Spanish onion? Spanish for Spanish onion is cebollas españolas according to Babelfish.
The poll-ish part of this post is: what kind of onion do you call a Spanish onion? (And where are you from, if it’s not in your location, please). This is for the purpose of establishing whether my findings below are factual.
As best I can tell, in the US Spanish onions are the large yellow ones, whereas in the UK they are the reddish-purple ones. Here in Australia there is fierce debate on the topic. Wikipedia wisely avoids the question entirely, the article on onions does even contain the word “Spanish” and the one on Spanish onions says they come in three colors yellow, red, and white. Wimps.
Spanish onions, if they’re referred to at all, which they aren’t much, are the ordinary yellow ones. Red onions are helpfully called “red onions”, white onions… you get the picture.
OK, this is looking hopeless, I may have to change the whole part of my book about them … it seems basically the east coast of the US say the red ones are the Spanish, whereas the UK and the rest of the USA say the yellow ones are, or don’t use the term at all. Argh.
If any native Spaniards care to chime in and confirm or deny post #4, that would still be useful though.
I honestly don’t know which onions are which, and I don’t remember if anything is labeled “Spanish” in the grocery store. Usually I buy a bag of yellow onions, plus the occasional individual red onion. This weekend I bought a bag of “sweet” onions or something. They taste watery.
Google images for “Spanish onion” shows me half a dozen different kinds of onions just in the first page, does “Spanish onion” just mean “round onion”?
Onions are cebollas. You can further classify as “nueva” (recently picked up) or “roja” (red ones, which are less usual), but that’s sort of specialty onions and they’re used in the same ways as regular brown-or-yellow onions; the only place you’re likely to hear the qualifiers is in the grocer’s (mostly so people know which number to choose in the self-service scale, in one with a live server you’re more likely to hear “medium-sized ones” or “from that box on the right, sorry, my right”). The little pickled ones are cebolletas (lit. “little cebolla”). And as far as I know, the only difference between a white onion and a brown-or-yellow one is that the white one is a brown-or-yellow one with the outermost layers removed, isn’t it?
Native Spaniard here. You may want to page sailor or Red Fury for confirmation and regional variations.
Normally, though, I refer to them as yellow onions. (As a tangential note of linguistic interest, in Hungarian, the yellow onions are called “red onions,” vöröshagyma, and what English speakers call red onions [the onions in Colibri’s link] are “purple onions”, lilahagyma.)
I’m not a cook, though. (Eastern US)
