How do I store onions and garlic?
Keeping onions, shallots and garlic for months rather than weeks, and what to do once they are cut.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 10 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
Whole onions and garlic want cool, dark, dry and airy — a mesh bag or open basket, never a sealed container and never near potatoes. Once cut, an onion goes in the fridge in a sealed container, where it will keep a few days.
Onions and garlic store extremely well when dry and ventilated, and rot quickly when damp or sealed. The single most common mistake is keeping them in the plastic bag they came in, which traps the moisture they release.
What you'll need
- Mesh bag, basket or paper bag
- Cool dark cupboard
- Sealed container for cut onion (optional)
Step by step
- Take them out of any plastic packaging as soon as you get home.Plastic traps moisture and they rot within a week or two.
- Store whole onions and garlic somewhere cool, dark, dry and ventilated.A mesh bag, wire basket or paper bag in a cupboard. Airflow matters as much as darkness.
- Keep them away from potatoes.Potatoes release moisture that rots onions, and onions release gases that sprout potatoes.
- Do not refrigerate whole onions or garlic.Fridge humidity makes them soften and go mouldy, and cold garlic sprouts quickly.
- Once cut, wrap an onion tightly or seal it in a container and refrigerate.It keeps a few days. Onions absorb and transmit smell strongly, so seal them properly.
- Store spring onions differently — in the fridge, stems in a little water.They are a fresh herb-like vegetable, not a storage onion, and behave completely differently.
- Check regularly for soft spots and mould, and remove anything affected.One soft onion spreads to its neighbours quickly.
- Freeze surplus chopped onion if you have too many.It loses texture but is fine for anything cooked. Freeze it flat in a bag.
Tips
- Whole garlic bulbs keep for months in the right conditions. Once you break a bulb, the individual cloves dry out much faster.
- Green sprouts in garlic cloves are edible but taste bitter — cut them out.
- Onion in the fridge makes everything else smell of onion unless sealed properly. A glass container with a lid is better than cling film.
Common mistakes
- Leaving them in the plastic bag — Trapped moisture causes rot and mould within a week or two.
- Storing onions with potatoes — Each accelerates the other's deterioration significantly.
- Refrigerating whole onions and garlic — Fridge humidity softens them and encourages mould and sprouting.
Questions people ask
How long do onions keep?
Whole, in cool, dark, ventilated storage, several months. In a plastic bag in a warm kitchen, a couple of weeks. The storage conditions matter more than the onion.
Should garlic go in the fridge?
No — whole bulbs keep better at cool room temperature. The fridge encourages sprouting and mould. Peeled cloves can be refrigerated for a few days in a sealed container.