I personally don't have problems with crying/tearing eyes when cutting an onion....but some people I know do. Here's an idea:
Interesting tip.. I never had an issue with tears when I used to chop onions back at my job in the old kitchen. However what I can say is when I learned how to chop if my fingers were anywhere near the knife like that guy's, my Sous-Chef would smack me in the back of the head and then watch as I cut a finger nail off... :rofl
if this helps any ive also heard that breathing through your mouth while cutting the onion tends to not make you cry AS MUCH than breathing through your nose...i dont cook with onion often so Im not to sure if it works.:angry017
Heres how I do it ! [vbpg]475[/vbpg] I read once that by running cold water over the onion as you peel it that will prevent crying as well. I do that also
What a bloody bad idea - wasting a third of the onion... Here's a better tip for ya: If the knive's sharp, and I MEAN sharp, really sharp, you won't cry because you slice the onion and not squash it, causing very little juice to be pressed out of the onion's cells -> you don't have to cry. That's the most simple and most effective tip on earth, but, sadly, 99% of all people don't even know how to SPELL the word "sharp" let alone sharpen a knive the right way.... but that's their problem :rofl
You read my mind. Of course, around here there is "sharp" and then us maniacs who prefer "scary sharp." My wife doesn't go near my Chefs' Knives.
Same here. Me dad managed to cut himself three or four times in a row after I sharpened our kitchen-knives, he told me to never ever touch the family-knives again :rofl
Chewing bubble gum while chopping an onion helps prevent the tears as well, or having a lit candle by you while you chop the onion...I think the bubble gum works better though. I wear contacts they help as well.
I used to handle perhaps two or three hundred pounds of onions a day. What really works is cutting so many onions that over time you don't notice the burn anymore. Contacts might help some, but they can also trap the irritant underneath them if you are cutting a lot of onions. Glasses don't shield the eyes (or nose) at all from the fumes. Breathing through your mouth does help some because the irritant is not passing over the membranes in your nose. A really sharp knife helps also (as mentioned) but don't ruin a straight by cutting an onion with it! The reason that onion fumes burn the eyes and sinuses is because of the chemical makeup, which, when mixed with water, turns into a very mild form of sulphuric acid. That stuff can etch metal, so no wonder it burns!
