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Chewing gum also helps to minimize crying while cutting onions.
by magic_beans 8y ago
Chewing gum also helps to minimize crying while cutting onions.
- hinkley 8y agoSo does sharpening your knife.
- gweinberg 8y agoIt's funny, I don't remember hearing this before, but once you point it out it seems mind-bogglingly obvious.
- hinkley 8y agoThere's a kitchen skills book whose title is a nod to sharp knife = less crying relationship but I'm stumped trying to remember what it's called.
- baddox 8y agoThis is the top Google result for "sharp knife = less crying": https://www.amazon.com/Sharper-Your-Knife-Less-You/dp/0143114131 https://www.amazon.com/Sharper-Your-Knife-Less-You/dp/014311...
- 2muchcoffeeman 8y agoPretty sure this doesn’t work when you are cutting 5kg of onions
- laichzeit0 8y agoAs one usually does when preparing a meal.
- 2muchcoffeeman 8y agoI had to do this once. And think of all the apprentice chefs doing this. They must have a better way. And their way will work for 1 onion or 50!
- moate 8y agoThis is bad science. This is not a real thing. Neither does running water nearby, or lighting a candle in the kitchen. None of this affects the root cause of your problem. Onion tears are caused by 2 different chemicals held apart by the onion's cellular structure. Every time you cut an onion, the cells rupture and mix, aerosolization and making you cry when the acid gets into your eyes. A sharp knife (as mentioning in another comment) would help minimize the amount of cellular damage and therefor the gas produced. You can also wear goggles. Everything else is bunk. From-A former professional chef and person particularly sensitive to onions. (I just learned to cut onions with my eyes closed)
- scrumbledober 8y agonot EVERYTHING else is bunk. Running water nearby might not help but cutting your onions submerged in water would definitely help. Another one is just simple good ventilation. Set up a fan near you and the chemicals will be blown away instead of gradually increasing in concentration around your eyes.
- mchannon 8y agoRefrigerate your onions before cutting them. Don’t know why everything else would automatically be bunk.
- moate 8y agoSorry, that's a bit hyperbolic on my part. There's so many old wive's tales out there about how to deal with onions. People try to solve it as though the tears were magical and not caused by (relatively) simple chemical reactions. If you refrigerate your onions, you might be fine for some amount of time and you'll be lessening damage and it's going to help but not solve it at volume (cut one onion, you're fine. Cut 100, not so much).
- mattkrause 8y agoYou could take them out of the fridge in batches....
- 8y ago
- ryen 8y agoI used to wear a co-worker's motorcycle helmet when goggles weren't available.
- vivekf 8y agoSo does washing the peeled onion before cutting it.