I love onions but hate having my eyes sting! Any advice on how to chop an onion without getting teary eyed?

Question

Are there any secret methods or techniques I should know about?

Answer 1

If you put onions in the refridgerator...for like a couple hours and then you chop em', you should be fine, or run the onion under cold water.....

Answer 2

As a professional chef im telling you this right now.
The freezer, the gum chewing, the candle and the fan does not work. Here is the SURE FIRE way professionals chop onions w/o the help of a machine and w/o tears.

1. Find the hard nob at the end of your onion. On a cutting board cut this straight in half then IMMEDIATELY place the cut side down on the cutting board. By doing this you will stop the onion's pores from coming into contact with your eyes.

2. Cut very fast. you can find any online guide for fast mincing.

3. Also think about the onion you're using. At the restaurant we use vidalia onions AKA sweet onions. They cause much less stress to your eyeballs and they lend a good flavor and can be substituted for just about any other onion.

Answer 3

What causes the onion to act as a tear-gas bomb? There are juices and chemicals inside the onion's tissues; when your knife breaks the onion's cells a certain compound becomes airborne as a fine mist. This compound is called propanethial-S-oxide, which is a type of sulfoxide. When the misty droplets encounter a wet surface (your eyes or nose membranes) it dissolves into a form of sulfuric acid, which is understandably irritating to your sensitive organs.


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.

Hope this helps.
God Bless.......John 3:16
Dixiebell

Answer 4

I've heard that the best remedy is wearing contact lenses, but if you are not a contact lens wearer, that doesn't help! Since it sounds like you use a lot of chopped onions in cooking, why not invest in an Alligator Onion Dicer? I picked one up at a local gourmet/cooking tools store for $20, and all you have to do is remove the outer peel and ends, then put the onion on the dicer and press down. The grid-like cutter dices the onions quickly and easily, and the onions don't get all wet and gummy as they sometimes do when "chopped" in a food processor. Happy Cooking! Maria

Answer 5

I have to agree with you. I love onions. I have tried all sorts of little tips that people suggest and none of them have really worked for me. I find that the easiest way to chop onions is to use my food processor. I simply just peel the outer layer of the onion and cube my onion into four pieces. Then I drop them in the processor and pulse until I get the desired choppiness of the onion. Okay, I so know that choppiness isn't a word, but I could not find another way to explain it. I hope this will help you! Good luck and Have a Blessed day! :)

Answer 6

One silly way I have learned is to stick your face in the freezer for 30 seconds before you chop! Repeat every minute or two. But a more practical approach is to turn on a fan, open a window, or wear some protective glasses. Cooling the onion helps mildly, but remember the colder it gets, the harder it is to chop. As a cook myself, I have found that through prolonged exposure, I become immune to the onion's sting, but then when I stop cooking for a period of time and come back to it, there we go again!

Answer 7

I light a candle near where I'm chopping the onion. My mom told me to do this and I don't get teary eyed. Not sure if it works for everyone though.

Answer 8

Go with Melanie S. or prepare the onions under running tap water. I use yellow onions exclusively ... they seem not to be too guilty of making a person tear up. White onions are the real guilty culprits and nothing I've tried will work ... working with white onions and I wind up every time, regardless of what I try to do to prevent it, with runny, tearing, stinging eyes. Red onions are not too bad. But, I wouldn't touch a white onion with your knife.

Answer 9

Here's the secret method, Sit down drink a few beer's and have somebody else chop the onions for you.

Answer 10

I was curious about this, so I went to onions-usa.com, the site of the National Onion Association (I kid you not) and they say...

How can I reduce tearing when cutting an onion?

Reduce tearing when cutting onions by first chilling the onions for 30 minutes. Cut off the top and peel the outer layers leaving the root end intact. (The root end has the largest concentration of sulphuric compounds that make your eyes tear.)