What's the *secret* to chopping onions W/O crying/dying?

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Replies

  • AllyCatXandi
    AllyCatXandi Posts: 329 Member
    Just put some swimming goggles on and you're set. You won't feel a thing :D
  • dewetoys
    dewetoys Posts: 4
    My son said in culinary school: They tell them to put them in the freezer for a bit and then they willnot bother you. It seems to work.
  • 1SlimShaylee
    1SlimShaylee Posts: 204
    light a candle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • paintlisapurple
    paintlisapurple Posts: 982 Member
    Vidalia onions don't seem to give as powerful of a punch as the others. After I slice my onions in half and peel the skin away, I'll run them under water for a few seconds. It seems to help anyway.
  • AllyLuna
    AllyLuna Posts: 32
    Enzymes in the onion react to water, so they hit the moisture in your eye making it burn, causing you to cry. Soaking an onion can help but it can also take away the flavour or cutting it underwater which is difficult! I found the best way was to keep my hands wet as well as leaving a puddle of water under the onion while cutting it on a plate. This works well because they enzymes make contact with the water first instead of your eyes, reacting there. Does that make sense? lol. Good luck!!

    http://www.ehow.com/how_2027460_slice-onion-crying.html
  • Owlie45
    Owlie45 Posts: 806 Member
    Stick your head in the freezer, it works. You get a weird look when you do it at other peoples house :laugh:
    keep a glass of water next to you and dip the blade in it every couple cuts
  • Rurouni_Kou
    Rurouni_Kou Posts: 180 Member
    Wow theres so much myth here.
    The reason onions make you cry is that when you cut an onion you're breaking the cells, which release a gas that mixes with the water in your eyes and creates sulfuric acid. Yes, sulfuric acid in your eyes*. That's why they're burnin.

    -Dangling bread out of your mouth only makes you look silly. It does nothing to change the fact that there is a vapor in the air nor that that vapor is mixing with your watery eyes and burning. Bread doesn't remove the vapor nor make your eyes dry (unless you're the person watching the bread dangling person, then you get dry eyed from crying too much when laughing)
    -Same with chewing gum (Seriously, what is that supposed to do other than give you a sore jaw? It doesn't do anything for the vapor or the water in eyes.)

    Things that do work:
    -Goggles (derp)
    -Get a fan to waft away the vapors
    -cut the onion with a sharp knife (less breakage of the cells than when it's sharp) and cut it when it's chilly (Slows the reaction and apparently changes the onion chemically)
    -Cut it underwater or regularly wash the onion to get rid of the oils

    More info: http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryfaqs/f/onionscry.htm

    *I actually learned about sulfuric acid being formed from cutting onions when I was watching the Atheists response to "The banana: an atheists nightmare" (this is what I'm referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK0Cs8Alhds). Every time I cut onions I think about it and try not to giggle- it makes it hard to cut onions.

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