Is there a way to chop onions without irritating the eyes?

Answer 1

http://www.wikihow.com/Chop-Onions-without-Tears
Put the unpeeled onion in the freezer and leave it there for about ten minutes.
Put on some sort of glasses. Tears are caused by the juices from the onion getting in your eyes and irritating them.
Remove the onion from the freezer and peel it. The onion can now be sliced, chopped, or minced without tears,
Alternate methods:
Simply keep your onions in the fridge along with other veggies and you will never cry when chopping them - it's that simple!
If you use a sharp knife, there shouldn't be any tears. An onion makes you cry because acid is being released from the onion. Using a dull knife crushes the onion rather than cutting it, releasing far more of this acid into the air.
Try holding a wooden spoon or a piece of bread between your teeth while cutting. This significantly reduces the irritation to the eyes.
Keep your mouth open and breathe through it while cutting onions to reduce the amount of tears.
Do the peeling and dicing of the onion in your kitchen sink area. But first turn on the water faucet (the spray works better) and try to peel and dice your onion behind the running water. The sulfur gas from the onion will hit the running water and becomes sulfuric acid and washes away before it hits your eyes.
Bring a pot of water to boil until it starts steaming. Then remove from heat and put the pot on the kithen counter and start peeling and dicing your onions in the vicinity. The steam from the pot will trap the sulfur gas emitted from the onions before it hits your eyes.
Burn a candle on the counter near where you're cutting the onion. It'll burn off the fumes that cause eye irritation. A scented candle also smells better than raw, chopped onion!
You can also avoid tears simply by chewing a piece of gum while you are cutting the onion.
Try holding 5-7 wooden matches in your teeth (unlit of course); it will absorb the odor. The matches with red tips work best. Match stick tips have sulfur (S) in them and the sulfur gas (S) emited from onions hits these tips before getting to your eyes and becomes S2 that is neutral.
Put a fan behind you and towards the onions to blow the sulfur gases away from you.
Let the water run in the sink, while you peel the onions at the sink itself.
If you have contacts, wear them.
Grandma always held a silver spoon in her mouth while peeling onions. I tried it and it worked!

Fill your sink with water and peel and cut the onion under water. Works every time.***
Normal or Prescription swim goggles - exceptionally effective***
It's also very helpful to keep all unchopped onion portions (especially at the beginning with the second half of the onion) sliced side down on your cutting board. This will minimize the release of extra enzymes into the air that cause tearing; you'll get enough just from the onion that you are cutting!



Warnings
Onions that have been frozen raw may tend to be slightly mushy after thawing. Pan fry it before cooling and putting into an airtight container and freeze.

http://members.aol.com/stevef88/discuss/onions.htm
Use a sharp knife.
This is more common sense than a cure. A dull knife will crush the onion cells more than a cleanly slicing sharp blade, and the crushed cells will release more of the deadly spray into the atmosphere. Some say that a stainless steel knife is best because it supposedly lessens the severity of the onion juice (and stainless steel rubbed on your hands afterward take the smell away) but this is uncertain. At any rate this method is no cure because even the sharpest knife slices plenty of cells up and releases the caustic gas.

Hold a wooden matchstick between your teeth -- match head out.
Maybe someone thought this up to see how much he could get someone else to act like a clown. The theory is that the match head attracts and absorbs all the bad chemicals. There is no magical matchstick magnetism that can significantly reduce the sulfuric aerosol; so all I can say is try it to prove it to yourself (it didn't work for me).

Hold a piece of bread in your mouth.
Some say to chew the bread also. But as with the match above, the bread cannot have any significant attractive force on the onion spray. When I tried this it seemed to delay the onset of tears (but not for long) so it may not be totally ineffective.

Breath only through your mouth.
This may be combined with the bread in the mouth too. I can see that if no air is flowing through the nose membranes it may reduce the irritation there, but it doesn't help the eyes, which are the main cause of pain.

Chew on a raw onion.
This method appears so ridiculous I can see no physical reason why one would want to put another source of onion spray even closer to his sensitive mucous membranes.

Don't chop the onion root -- or do it last.
The reasoning is that the root end of the onion has a higher concentration of these nasty chemicals. That may be so, but the difference is not very great since the non-root onion releases plenty of noxious fumes.

Keep the outer skin on the onion as long as possible.
This is an attempt to contain the onion in some part to reduce the surface exposed to the air. The reduction in onion mist is minimal at best since all that sliced onion flesh is exposed to the air.

Chop the onion under water, under running water, or pre-soak in water.
This 'under water' lore seems quite pervasive; I cannot imagine trying to hold and contain all the diced onion bits (which float away) under a sink filled with water. In theory if the onion was exposed only to water and not air the sulfoxide would be washed away by the water and never become airborne. A variant is to have running water nearby the chopping area in the hopes that it will obtain some of this aforementioned magical attractive power (this didn't work for me.) Another scheme is to soak the onion peeled (even cut in half or quarters) in water for some length of time to draw out the juices. While this may reduce the fumes some it only penetrates so far; once I started slicing into onion the spray was as bad as before.

Wear contact lenses to shield eye surface from airborne spray.
I don't wear contacts so I can't say firsthand, but they don't cover the whole eye surface (leaving it partially exposed) and don't do anything for the nose. Besides, see the next suggestion.

Don't wear contact lenses.
The acid gets between the lens and the eye for an even more excruciating pain.

Wear swim goggles or a diving mask.
This solution actually works because the particles in the air are prevented from touching your skin. The goggles will only protect your eyes, and with the mask you have to breath out of your mouth. It is cumbersome and uncomfortable, and it doesn't protect any one else in the room.

Use a fan to blow away or suck up the fumes.
If you can get a strong enough fan or cut your onions outside where there is a breeze, I can see this method as somewhat effective. If inside, wherever you blow the fumes (unless it's out a window) will be fumigated. Some say use the fan over the stove top, but it usually isn't strong enough; besides it draws the air up, where your head is likely to be. With a fan it is best to blow horizontally, away from the face.

Place onions in the freezer for 20 minutes before cutting.
When the onion juices are chilled they are less likely to become airborne. This strategy is the most well-known solution to the onion problem, but it simply does not work. Unless the onion is actually frozen, there will still be onion juice sprayed in the air (besides, unless you store them in the refrigerator you have to wait for the onion to chill before you can cut it.)

Put white vinegar on the chopping block to neutralize chemicals.
I tried this method, and it actually works. The stinging in the eyes was almost eliminated, but the smell was not very pleasant. The moist vinegar on the onion interferes with frying, and its flavor may taint some foods.

Burn a candle near the work area.
This rarely-known technique is based on the fact that the candle flame pulls air from around it and sends it up the smoke plume. Although surprisingly effective, a single candle usually cannot handle the large amount of aerosol generated by a lot of dicing or fine slicing. This last technique holds the secret to the final solution.
And now the answer you've all been waiting for:

Place the cutting board next to a gas range and turn on a burner or two.
The heat and flames draw in the onion mist, burn it, and send it up with the rest of the flame exhaust. In the heat the chemical changes such that it no longer irritates the eyes. One could also use the hood exhaust fan while the burners are on. The only drawback with this solution is that some unlucky fools aren't cooking with gas. They could try an electric range on high, but it doesn't really work (better to use several candles instead.) A poor stove arrangement might make it difficult or force you to cut left handed, but it can usually be worked out (and you don't have to stand very close to the flame). As with the fan, you want the flame to pull the onion fumes away from your face. And as pertains to all methods, you want to keep your face as far away from the hacking and hewing action at the cutting board as you can. I have a range with four burners: two on the left and two on the right with a big space between them where I put the cutting board. I turn on the two right burners, stand a bit to the left, and cut with my right hand.

Answer 2

Glasses, contact lenses, and other eye protectorss, will halp a bunch, Also leaving the onions out of the fridge will reduce the chemicals that irritate our eyes, but the onion may not taste as good.

Answer 3

Hold the onion under cold running water for five minuets, or a little longer must be run on medium to high. then chop with no tears.

Answer 4

Either have someone do it for you or hold a piece of bread in your lips to absorb the fumes before they get to you eyes. Leaning back from directly above the onion as you peel/slice/chop it works also.

Answer 5

I have heard that putting a bowl of water nearby helps reduce the effect.

Also know that the root end of the onion holds all the gas -
try chopping that part last.

cryingly yours - all the best ;-(

Answer 6

when you cut into an onion a certan enzyme comes out which is what irritates your eyes and if u chop it by a lit fire you wont even get the slightest tingle!!

Answer 7

After peeling, I cut the onion in half and rinse it under cold water to wash away some of the juice. It is the juice that causes tears.If you do happen to tear up anyway, run your hands under cold water immediately.

Answer 8

i have a device called "Magic Chopper Pro" and it chops the onions inside of it, then, i just throw the onions in the pan.

Answer 9

Cut your onion under running water into a strainer

Answer 10

What has helped me the most is making sure the onions are chilled, out of the refrigerator, they aren't as smelly that way.

Answer 11

food processor I do a whole bag and once and freeze it so I can grab a handful to cook with.

Also putting a whole onion in the freezer for like 20 minutes will make it so the juice isnt' so strong.