Emperor Nero ate so many leeks that Romans nicknamed him Leek Eater
Nero believed raw leeks, taken in soup or oil, improved his singing voice, and the habit earned him the nickname Porrophagus. Romans rated the vegetable above garlic and onions. Centuries later it became an emblem of Wales, stitched onto a queen's coronation gown after the designer was refused permission to swap it for a daffodil.
Botanically, a leek is a cultivar of Allium ampeloprasum, the broadleaf wild leek, and relative of onion, garlic and chives. What cooks call its stalk is really a bundle of leaf sheaths. The English word comes from Old English leac, meaning onion, which also gave us the second half of garlic; Swedish lok and German Lauch are cousins. Elephant garlic and Persian leek are varieties of the very same species.
Leeks have fed people for a very long time. Dried remains, carvings and drawings show Egyptians eating them from at least the second millennium BCE, and texts record cultivation in Mesopotamia from the start of that millennium. The Hebrew Bible mentions a plant commentators identify as leek, abundant in Egypt. The 1st-century Roman cookbook Apicius includes four leek recipes.
Growers usually raise seedlings densely and transplant them at about 12 weeks, when they are as thick as a pencil. Leeks tolerate cold better than other cultivated alliums, allowing year-round harvests in Europe, and they can wait in the field for up to six months. Summer types are smaller; overwintering types taste stronger. Thrips do most damage in hot, dry spells, when insects breed fast and the plants stall.
The French serve boiled leeks cold with vinaigrette and call them poor man's asparagus. Turkish cooks stuff the separated leaves with rice and herbs, the Swiss canton of Vaud claims boiled leeks and potatoes as its signature dish, and Sephardic Jewish families fry leek patties for Rosh Hashanah and Passover. Welsh tradition offers competing origin stories: King Cadwaladr's soldiers wearing leeks in battle against the Saxons, or Saint David eating nothing else while fasting. Shakespeare's Henry V already called the custom ancient, the Welsh Guards wear it as a cap badge, and Romania's Oltenia region also claims it as a symbol.
Source: Leek
