Escallion

The escallion is a vegetable, a member of the genus Allium. It is similar in appearance to the British spring onion, American green onion and Welsh leek, though said to be more flavourful. Like these others, it is a (relatively) mild onion that does not form a large bulb.

The Jamaican name is probably a variant of scallion, itself used loosely at different times to denote the spring onion, the leek, the shallot or the green stalk of the familiar garden onion (Allium cepa). The spelling 'escalion' is recorded in the eighteenth century: the older 'scallion' dates from at least the fourteenth century. The OED's reference to 'escalions' in Phillip H. Gosse's Birds of Jamaica (1847) implies that Gosse believed the shallot and the 'escalion' to be different vegetables.

Escallion is a common and much prized ingredient in authentic Jamaican cooking, whether alone or more usually in combination with thyme, hot pepper and allspice. Recipes calling for escallion sometimes suggest the use of leek as a substitute. Jamaican dried spice mixtures that include escallion are available commercially.

References

The Oxford English Dictionary