By Joel Denker
“I will not move my army without onions,” General Ulysses S. Grant wrote in a message to the War Department. Three trainloads of the necessities arrived the next day. Grant was just one of many throughout history who have placed their faith in onions. So ubiquitous that it often goes unnoticed, the common bulb has quenched the hunger and added zest and bite to otherwise ordinary diets of countless cultures.
Honored as provider of health and vitality, it was, curiously enough, also a source of disgust and dread. Relished by multitudes, it was often scorned by members of the elect.
The onion belongs to the vast allium genus, a group of 800 species, which also includes garlic, leeks, and chives. The allia, whose name comes from the Greek “to avoid,” were most probably first domesticated in the mountainous regions of Central Asia near Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The seeds and bulbs reached the Middle East with travelers and caravans who plied the Silk Road and other trade routes.
Their birthplace, allium authority Eric Block argues, helps explain the plants’ distinctive flavor and fragrance. “These plants originated in a very tough neighborhood, in Central Asia north of Afghanistan, and they evolved some serious chemical weapons to defend themselves.” Mostly odorless, they release sulfur chemicals when their tissues are disturbed by cutting, crushing, or other injury. The molecules easily disperse to excite our senses and even to attach themselves to our hair and clothing.
The chemical reaction that produces their appealing pungency is a survival mechanism. “They’re not there for our pleasure,” Dr. Block points out. “They’re there to allow the plant to survive in a very hardscrabble world, a world where there are lots of worms in the ground and animals that would devour something that exists in a bulb and has to survive in the ground.”
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To learn more about onions, see The Carrot Purple and Other Curious Stories of the Food We Eat, coming in October from Rowman & Littlefield: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442248861/The-Carrot-Purple-and-Other-Curious-Stories-of-the-Food-We-Eat.
