Uncooperative ugly ducklings are what you’ll get if you buy the French gray shallots that Ray Bradley sells in the Greenmarket. They come with stringy roots, the soil still clinging, and then present several layers of tough skin surrounding a smallish, lavender-gray bulb.

Image Credit... Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Persevere. It’s worth the effort because these shallots, prized by chefs, are more intensely pungent than other kinds. You will understand once you mince some into a mignonette for oysters, add thin slices under the skin of a chicken, or roast them with root vegetables.

Bradley Farms’ gray shallots are $8 a pound at Columbus Avenue and 97th Street on Fridays, Grand Army Plaza on Saturdays.