We’ve all been there, our eyes stinging, tears rolling down our faces, due to our foolish attempts at slicing a tasty onion. Or, at least, cutting an onion seems foolish as our eyes and noses react to onion vapors. Our 20/20 hindsight vision tells us that there must be a better way. We will withstand these tears no more! Join us for our tear free tips on cutting onions!
Slice and Dice the Onion Under a Vent
Put your cutting board near the overhead vent by your stove or microwave ventilation fan and turn them on as you chop the onions. This redirects airflow and draws the fumes towards the vent instead of your face. Your eyes might sting a little bit, but you will not tear up. Providing your kitchen has some sort of ventilation, this little trick is easy to do in order to prevent tears.
Wear Goggles Before Battling the Onion
While this trick might seem silly, it is effective. Protect your eyes from onion vapors by wearing a pair of goggles. Swimming goggles will work. There are even special onion goggles that you can buy. The goggles are great to help protect your eyes from the fumes, but they are not great if you need glasses to see because the goggles displace the glasses. So, this tip isn’t for everyone, but it is highly effective.
Freeze or Refrigerate the Onion
Freezing or refrigerating the onion 15 minutes before you chop it helps to mitigate tears. It is thought that the cold prevents the onions from releasing their eye irritating gases. Freezing the onion for 15 minutes seems to work better for tear mitigation than refrigerating. However, a partially frozen onion is a little bit more difficult to chop through and peel. Refrigeration seems to reduce the amount of tears, but doesn’t dispel them entirely. Plus, storing your onions in the fridge can give them a strange texture while causing other foods to spoil faster.
Soak the Onion in Water before Chopping
This trick is fairly simple but takes a little bit of time. Peel the onion, cut off its ends, and submerge in cold water for 15 minutes or so. Theoretically, the water bath soaks the eye irritating sulfuric compounds out of the onion. This makes cutting the onion easier on the eyes yet also produces a more mild onion. So, depending on what you plan to do with your onions, this may be the tip for you.
Slice the Onion Under Running Water
This is very similar to the above tip where we soak the onion before slicing. However, instead of waiting for the water to draw the sulfuric compounds out of the onion, we let the water run over the onion as we slice it. This tip works, chopping an onion under running water will prevent you from crying. The downside of this tip is that chopping in a sink is sort of awkward and it gets slippery.