What can I do differently to stop from crying when cutting up onions????

Answer 1

Garlic, onions, and leeks may be lacking in color, but they're bursting with powerful phytochemicals, substances found only in plants that help your body fight disease and promote good health," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Vegetables from the onion family, which includes garlic, chives, scallions, leeks share a group of phytochemicals that are very important to good health, with allicin the most common phytochemical. Allicin may play a role in helping lower cholesterol and blood pressure and increasing the body's ability to fight infections.

The National 5 A Day for Better Health Partnership recommends including garlic, onions, and/or leeks as part of the recommended 5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruit a day.



If cooking with onions brings tears to your eyes, here's why: "The tearjerker in onions is a compound called propanethial-s-oxide, which is released in a vapor when onions are cut" according to Cheryl Forberg, professional chef, registered dietitian and author of Stop the Clock! Cooking .

"When the vapor comes in contact with the eye, it is converted to a form of sulfuric acid, which produces the stinging sensation and subsequent tears. Cutting onions under water or chilling them before cutting, will retard the enzymes that generate the noxious chemicals," recommends Forberg.

Some other suggestions people have mentioned for preventing tears when working with onions include:

Keep the root on while peeling and chopping. A variation of this is to cut from the top leaving the root end intact until the last cut!

Be in a well-ventilated place and cut fast!

Use a good, sharp chef's knife. It glides through the onion with ease, allowing less of the compounds that cause tears to come out.

Wear a pair of safety goggles or a cheap, disposable painter's mask.

Put a slice of bread in your mouth, with half of it sticking out to "catch" the fumes.

Put some white vinegar on the chopping board before cutting.

Burn a candle immediately adjacent to where you're cutting. The tear-causing gas is drawn toward the heat source.

Purchase pre-chopped onions.

After cutting the onions (and garlic), a suggestion that may help remove the smell from your hands is to run cool tap water over your hands while rubbing them across a stainless steel utensil, such as the bowl of a stainless steel spoon. If you have been cutting a lot of onions, this may not be as effective.

Answer 2

I'm like you, sensative to onions. Not to good in a former chef, but there are some things we can do.

Perfumes, scented candles, and other items are out. They merely mask the smell, and don't actually affect the chemical that causes irritation.

Onion kind does matter...some are very strong, and some are weak. Find out what is best for you. Vidalia doesn't affect me, but yellow onions do. Other factors, such as age, water content, etc also play a part.

Prep is something to look at. This is what we told our cooks when they were cuttnig onions before I ran out the door...

Use a sharp knife. Makes the job go quicker, get cleaner cuts, and if you slice yourself, it is much easier to reattach the finger.

Wash the onion. Have some water next to you to place the cut pieces into if you are going to wait, or toss into the pan right away if it is going right into production.

Good ventilation! Alas, kitchens aren't quite known for this aside from the grill top hoods...

And in my case...get someone else to do it. Even better, suggest scallions, or buy pre cut onions. A little more expensive, but less chance of being mistaken for someone who just lost a loved family member in an accident. On the other hand, the tearful look is effective when people complain about your onion cutting skills... "What do you *sniff* mean you don't *sniff* like my onions?"

Answer 3

Cut onions next to an open flames ie gas stove. It will burn the fumes that burns ur eyes.

Cut onions in water. Fill an empty sink of water and cuts onions inside the water.

Also make sure you have vent fan on over u stove it sucks in the air so the onion flumes (ones that make you cry)

Don't palce onion directly under you.

Answer 4

Try putting the onions in the fridge the day before you are to use them. Chop up them with a cold knife. These are just some of the things that have helped me.

Answer 5

after peeling the onion , soak them in water to which a pinch of salt is added for about 5 to 10 mins . this will definitely work !! however i would suggest not to do so as it is a natural remedy to get rid of dirt from the eyes naturally , instead of using any eye drops . Hope this has helped.

Answer 6

Most people's knives aren't nearly sharp enough. After getting it sharpened, keep the edge keen with a sharpening steel.

If it's not sharp, then there is more crushing, bruising and tearing that happens instead of a clean cut, which releases a lot more of the volatile chemicals.

Answer 7

peel, slice in half and put in the freezer for about 45 minutes. It makes the onion semi frozen and the vapors won't escape much.
It works!:)

Answer 8

If you chew while cutting onions you don't tear up! I have no idea why but it actually works!

Answer 9

Light a candle and put it next to you on the counter while you chop the onions :)

Answer 10

Ok this may sound crazy ...but i PROMISE you it works.....if you are cutting something that makes your eyes burn and water, like an onion,...stick your head in the freezer...it will stop almost instantly...