Preventing tears when chopping onions

[Chopstix]

According to a Burmese acquaintance, her trick to prevent crying when chopping onions is to lay out a generous amount of salt (she uses rock salt) on a saucer beside the chopping board. She says this greatly reduces the prickly sensation on the eyes. (She said this is Asian conventional wisdom. I've never heard of it.)

I haven't tried it as I normally have my contact lenses on. Anyone care to try this out?

 

[Andy M.]

I just chop them as fast as I can.

 

[Hopz]

Seriously now... wear goggles if it is that big of a problem.... that's what Alton Brown does.

Another old wives tale is to hold a stick match or two in your mouth while chopping, or you could get a blitzhacker and do it under plastic, etc.

The tears come from the sulpheric acid formed when the moisture in your eyes reacts with the sulphur in the onions. Get low sulphur onions.

 

[GB]

Cold onion and a sharp knife does the trick for me.

 

[Andy M.]

No disrespect intended to the Asian community, but I can't see how a saucer of salt would have a benefit with onion tears.

Fumes rising from the onion and reacting with the moisture in your eyes is how it happens. Older onions give off more fumes than fresher onions. You can't really stop the fumes from leaving the onion(you can slow them down a little). You can stop them from reaching your eyes. The goggles are a solution, as is a fan blowing across the cutting board and blowing any fumes away from your eyes.

Both of those solutions are too much of a bother for me.

 

[AllenOK]

Cold onion and a sharp knife does the trick for me.

That's what I do.

 

[lulu]

I weep buckets with onions, my husband finds it hilarous. If I can and its for company I slice them before sorting out my make up, other wise its the hand blitzer and open windows, and if all else fails I flutter my lashes at my husband LOL

 

[CharlieD]

There was a thread about that not so long ago.

Sharp clean knife, running water, that's all.

 

[vyapti]

I keep the range fan on while chopping and run water from the tap. I guess that kind of makes sense, giving the fumes another water source to react with. --who knows!

 

[Yakuta]

The thing that does work is to peel the onion an split it into half. Take the halves and throw it into cold water. Leave them in the water for 15-20 minutes. Take it out and cut it. The gases which cause teary eyes are greatly reduced by following the soaking process.

 

[lulu]

There was a thread about that not so long ago.

Sharp clean knife, running water, that's all.

Running water option is out here in South East England.....we have a very serious water shortage. Here in London they are talking about having standpipes in the street and have sent letters to us all asking us to forgo baths, turn the tap off hen be bruh our teeth and only flush if we really need to!!!

 

[sattie]

Seriously now... wear goggles if it is that big of a problem.... that's what Alton Brown does.

Another old wives tale is to hold a stick match or two in your mouth while chopping, or you could get a blitzhacker and do it under plastic, etc.

The tears come from the sulpheric acid formed when the moisture in your eyes reacts with the sulphur in the onions. Get low sulphur onions.

I wear my sun shades!!

 

[Silver]

I've tried the match in the teeth thing...worked pretty well (if I lit the match and blew it out first, of course).

Didn't eliminate, but certainly reduced.

 

[ironchef]

Also, don't inhale through your nose. That speeds up the tearing process.

 

[BigDog]

SUCK IT UP!!!

That's what I say to do when cutting onions! Less talk, less cry, more cut! Get on with it and get it over with.

I just cut a yellow onion this morning that was fairly strong. It didn't bring me to tears, but it was strong enough that I know people that it would have sent to tears. Doesn't help that the knives in my kitchen are older and not well sharpened. See my posts elsewhere about desiring new cultlery.

 

[CharlieD]

Dog, forget new cutlery, you'll ruin it; start with sharpening the one you have now. When we see that you take good care of your existing cutlery then maybe will give you permission to get the new one

 

[grumblebee]

Seriously now... wear goggles if it is that big of a problem.... that's what Alton Brown does.

Another old wives tale is to hold a stick match or two in your mouth while chopping, or you could get a blitzhacker and do it under plastic, etc.

The tears come from the sulpheric acid formed when the moisture in your eyes reacts with the sulphur in the onions. Get low sulphur onions.

Yup... the googles thing is the only "trick" that works because it totally prevents the sulphur from getting in your eyes and creating that acid burn.

I've heard of so many "tricks", from holding a slice of frozen bread in your teeth (haha!), to having a lit candle nearby, and so forth.

If I'm in a hurry I've chopped them under water before. Thats another sure way to prevent onions tears. I only do this when I'm using your basic white/yellow onion and dont mind if a bit of the strong flavour is washed away.

 

[amber]

Yep I've heard to run the onion under water before slicing, which seems to work for me.

 

[Robo410]

have a good ventilator fan...no more tears

 

[jennyema]

COld onion sharp knife.

A sharp knife is the most important as it causes the least damage to the cells, allowing the least sulfuric compounds to leach out.