A mild, purple-skinned onion variety widely used raw or lightly cured, common in Latin American and Middle Eastern dishes including Peruvian ceviche and lomo saltado.
Facts
Disputed
Origin RegionUncertain among Iran, western Pakistan and Central Asia; the onion species (Allium cepa), of which red onion is a color cultivar, is known only from cultivation with no confirmed wild ancestor, so its geographic origin cannot be pinned to one place. 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountThe source states plainly that the geographic origin of the onion is uncertain and that ancient records span both eastern and western Asia; this entry describes the species generally, since the red-skinned variety has no separately documented origin of its own. Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountAnchors to the Mesopotamian cuneiform recipe tablets, the earliest solid documented use of onions in food preparation; broader cultivation claims run to about 7,000 years, but without the same precision, so this fact uses the dated record rather than the vaguer estimate. Connections
Used By
Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidson
Source The Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidson
Sources
1. Onion (Wikipedia)
WikipediaHistory sectionQuote, History section
The tablets, dating from around 2000 BC, are the oldest known recipes in the world.
The Oxford Companion to Food
Alan Davidson, Oxford University Press, 2014- entry: Onions
- Used By: Ceviche
- Used By: Lomo Saltado
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