Can you prevent crying when cutting an onion

There are even tortoise shell onion goggles for sale. Your aunt, best friend, or next-door neighbor will undoubtedly swear by one of these methods. Just smile and nod. The idea seems to be that the bread can potentially absorb some of the LF before it reaches your eyes.

This not-so-great idea is similar to the one behind chilling the onion — supposedly microwaving interferes with the chemical reaction. For this back-pocket recipe, all you need are six large onions, your recently sharpened knife, and some clarified butter. Pickled Red Onions by David Lebovitz. While my preferred combo is just thinly sliced onions, lime juice, and a pinch of salt, David Lebovitz takes his to the next level with white vinegar, sugar, and proper pickling spices.

French Onion Soup by Williams-Sonoma. An all-time fave. If you want to take it up a notch, they recommend a mix of red, white, and sweet onions such as Vidalia.

The secret? Baking them. Onion Bhaji by BBC. Or, when you're really afflicted, you can do both. To protect your eyes , simply cover them. An added benefit of my contact lenses is that they act as a barrier, preventing the chemical compound from coming in contact with the surface of my eyes.

That's it. Did it actually work? It obviously did not work. The radioactive waves draw out and weaken the harmful acids. And no, it didn't work. How is it supposed to work: It's dumb. You look dumb doing it. Legend has it, breathing through your mouth and not your nose will draw in the sulfur before it hits your eyes. I'm calling bullshit. Not at all. And now the entire kitchen smells like patchouli. Though it did remind me of all the times my mom made me Pledge the entire hardwood floor of our dining room.

Still working on it. Shop Knives. A single crunchy, raw onion can bring the most seasoned chef to tears. But they are. And to enjoy the mild bite of a pico de gallo or crunchy sweetness of an onion ring, you need to learn how to cut onions without crying. It helps to first understand exactly why onions cause tears to well up.

Onions contain both sulfur compounds which creates their pungent flavor and an enzyme called synthase. As soon as an onion is sliced, the two elements form a chemical compound called syn- propanethial S-oxide. This is released into the air in the form of gas, which irritates the lacrimal glands in our eyes and causes them to water.

Sweeter onions, like red onions or Vidalia onions, are less likely to cause tears, compared to more pungent white or yellow onions. To reduce the amount of gas released, we need to do as little damage to the onion as possible. The fewer cell walls broken when working with onions, the less gas comes out to cause tears. Using a sharp knife is the best way to do the least amount of damage to an onion.