Need help to buy an Onion Slicer !!

[maria]

Hi Guys, i need help to buy an onion slicer,
I hate those tears whenever i slice onions. So i'm thinking of buying an Onion slicer, with options of both thinly slicing the onions and think slices of onion too. It shouuld preferably be cheap and ofcourse of THE BEST quality possible. Help me out. Where from can i buy it in Toronto? or gimme some good links where i can buy i online from. Help !

[Katie E]

Maria, my first thought was...a knife, but since you don't like the tears, you want to go a different direction. However, have you tried slicing/chopping onions with a candle burning near you? That helps to remove some of the chemical that causes the crying.

As for a good slicer, you can have good and you can have cheap, but not together. If you want good, but not necessarily cheap, purchase a mandoline. Just Google "purchase mandoline" and you will probably find plenty of places to buy them.

You should also check out kitchen stores in your area. Actually, I'd even look in the kitchenware section of Wal-Mart to see if they have an inexpensive version.

Good luck.

P.S. I know you are a "gadgetaholic," so be careful.

[Andy M.]

You may want to try something like this.

[AllenOK]

Keep your onions in the refrigerator. Use a knife for the cutting, and keep that knife razor sharp. That will keep your onion from getting really smashed up when you cut/slice it, which doesn't release as much of the sulfur that makes you tear.

[Caine]

You could use a very sharp knife and wear swim goggles and a snorkle. But leave the flippers in the garage. You don't want to look silly!

[Caine]

If you want an onion slicer, as opposed to an onion chopper, I would suggest a mandoline. You can get them at most kitchen stores, and it should be fast enough where your tears will be minimal. Just be sure to inventory your fingers before and after each use.

[kitchenelf]

A mandolin and a knife work basically the same way. HOWEVER, a large onion and a small onion will BOTH fit a knife. A very large onion will not fit in a mandolin. Either way you are slicing the same distance from your eyes. I also use the burning candle sometimes (when I remember) and it does seem to help. I will set up 3 or 4 candles in front of me, on the other side of the onion. Otherwise my contacts pretty much protect my eyes.

I think flippers would be optional - a BC would be overboard!

And I ditto everything AllenOK said!

[oneoffour]

Maria,
The less you crush your way through the onion the less volitized onion spray to irritate you. I have a very sharp 4" paring knife and I leave my mandoline in the box. A thin blade sharpend at an acute angle and keep it SHARP. Remove the outer dry skins and run the onion under cold water. Don't dry to much as the cold water helps to minimize volitization. I give it one shake over the sink.

The onion is a bulb with all layers attach to a basil plate. The under side of the basil plate has the roots radiating from it. Keep the basil plate intact and you have a live bulb that if forgotten in the veggie drawer of the refrigerator it will spout even if only 1/4 of a bulb. Put the top part in there with out the bulb plate and it rots fast.

Cut down towards the bulb plate but not into it like staves of a barrel (hands of a clock). Then cut as for rings and the diced pieces fall off. Naturally to cut rings hold the onion or bulb plate and just cut across the bulb. A sharp knife and under two minutes you can go from an onion bulb to finely diced.

When I grill the onions rusticly I keep the quarters with a piece of the bulb plate on them and they stay as quarters as they are tossed around in the grill basket and not falling apart as pieces.

[Robo410]

consider a food processor with chop and slice options

[lyndalou]

I also thought of a knife when I first read the request for help. The only other thing would be as has already been suggested, a mandoline or a food processor. I have a fairly inexpensive plastic mandoline that works fine. Bought it a long time ago at a kitchen store somewhere.