Onion slicing without tears: Practical tips to keep dry
When slicing onions, we often end up in tears. Here are some proven methods to ensure you don't shed a single tear.
Slicing onions is essential for preparing salads, soups, sauces, and other delicious dishes, especially during the holiday season. Several types of onions are less likely to cause severe tearing and eye irritation, including red, sweet, white, and scallions. Yellow onions are most likely to cause tears. So, how can we prevent this?
Onions will stop irritating your eyes
When an onion is cut, its structure is damaged, releasing enzymes, including allinase. These enzymes react with sulfur-containing amino acids, releasing volatile sulfenic oxides that irritate our eyes and cause tearing.
To prevent this, cooling the onions in the refrigerator or freezer for 30 minutes before slicing is beneficial. However, we don't always have time to chill the onions before cooking. In such cases, they can be immersed in a bowl of very cold water for a few minutes, preferably with ice cubes. Before you start slicing, dry the onion with a paper towel.
One factor that can worsen symptoms is using a dull knife, which crushes the onion fibres and releases more irritating enzymes. A well-sharpened knife will reduce the time needed to slice the vegetable, indirectly lessening the risk of eye irritation. A knife chilled in cold water will work even better.
Another effective method is slicing onions near a burning candle or a gas stove burner. The irritating fumes then rise to the top of the room.
If we slice onions in a small, enclosed space, their aroma can become unbearable. To avoid unpleasant odours accumulating just above the cutting board, it's worth improving air circulation—open a window or turn on a vent.
Tools that make onion slicing easier
If you don't fancy slicing onions, consider getting a special vegetable chopper with a hermetic seal. This gadget allows you to chop vegetables in seconds without a knife, minimizing the time spent cutting vegetables and fruits while ensuring safety and precision in every cut.
Although some consider onion-cutting goggles useless, they can be very helpful. They protect your eyes from irritating fumes, which is particularly important for people suffering from allergies, conjunctivitis, or dry eye syndrome.
