Chives are the smallest culinary onion: a hardy perennial grown for its slender, hollow, mildly oniony leaves and pretty purple flowers. Snip them raw over eggs, potatoes and soups at the last moment.
What it is¶
Chives are a clump-forming perennial of the onion genus, Allium, growing tufts of thin, hollow, grass-like leaves 20–40 cm tall and, in late spring and early summer, round heads of lilac-pink flowers. They are one of the most widespread of all the alliums, growing wild across the cooler parts of the northern hemisphere, including a few places in Britain.
Their close relative garlic chives or Chinese chives (Allium tuberosum) has flat, broader leaves, white flowers and a stronger garlic flavour; it is used in Chinese dumplings, stir-fries and Korean pancakes. Both are distinct from spring onions, which are young plants of other onion species.
Origins and history¶
Chives have probably been gathered from the wild for as long as people have lived where they grow, but they arrived relatively late in written cookery. They were grown in medieval European gardens and appear in early modern herbals mostly as a minor pot-herb.
Their high status in the kitchen is largely French, through fines herbes and the garnishes of classic cooking, and central European, where snipped chives are scattered over open sandwiches, soups and potato salads. In Britain they became popular in the twentieth century with baked potatoes and soured cream.
Flavour and aroma¶
Chives taste of onion without the fire: fresh, green and sweet, with a light sulfurous bite and a faint garlic note. The sulfur compounds form only when the cells are broken, and they are volatile, so the flavour is best just after cutting and disappears with cooking. The flowers taste of mild onion too, with a little sweetness.
In the kitchen¶
Think of chives as a finishing herb: always raw, or added at the very end.
- Eggs: omelettes, scrambled eggs, devilled eggs, egg mayonnaise.
- Potatoes: baked potatoes with soured cream and chives; potato salad; mash.
- Soups: vichyssoise and other cream soups; a final scatter over consommé.
- Dairy: cream cheese, herb butter, cheese scones, dips, and French fromage blanc aux fines herbes.
- Fish: smoked salmon, crab, beurre blanc with chives.
- Flowers: separate the florets and scatter over salads; whole flower heads steeped in white wine vinegar turn it pink and oniony.
Snip chives with sharp scissors or slice with a very sharp knife; a blunt blade crushes the hollow leaves, making them watery and dull. Long pieces make an elegant garnish laid across a plate.
💡 Why chives go slimy
Chopped chives left sitting in a dish, or cooked for more than a minute, collapse and lose their bite. Cut them just before serving.
Buying and storing¶
Chives keep about a week wrapped in damp paper towel in a bag or box in the fridge. They do not dry well at home — the result is straw-like — but commercial freeze-dried chives are passable in dips. The best way to preserve them is freezing: snip them into a bag or box and use straight from frozen in cooked dishes (see freezing-herbs). A pot on the windowsill is more useful than any of these.
Substitutes¶
The green tops of spring onions, very finely sliced, are the usual substitute; use slightly less, as they are stronger. Garlic chives or a few leaves of wild garlic give more garlic. In fines herbes, there is no good replacement, but more chervil and parsley will do.
Pairs well with¶
Eggs, potatoes, soured cream, cream cheese, butter, smoked fish, salmon, crab, cucumber, parsley, chervil, tarragon, dill and black pepper.
Growing your own¶
Chives are among the easiest herbs. Sow in spring indoors or outdoors, or — better — buy a pot and divide it. They grow in sun or partial shade in any reasonably moist, fertile soil and are fully hardy, dying back in winter and returning early in spring.
Cut leaves 2–3 cm above the ground and they will regrow; cutting a whole clump back after flowering produces a fresh crop of tender leaves. Every three or four years, lift and divide the clumps into small groups of bulbs and replant. Chives grow well in containers and on windowsills, and a pot brought indoors in autumn can give leaves through winter. The flowers attract bees; deadhead them if you do not want self-sown seedlings.