Is there a way to avoid crying when cutting onions?

There are a few things that I have heard of and actually tried that have worked! The first one was to get some sort of minty flavored chewing gum, throw it in your mouth and chew on it while you are in the process of cutting up onions. No matter how strong or great the onion is, the gum helps create something in between to help it not burn as much.

I am not sure the exact reason but this does work! The other thing to do is have a nice fragrance of candle burning and water running as well. All of these put together make you the onion slicing king or queen!

I hope this helps you in some way, especially try to chewing gum thing, works the best!

When I had contact lenses, my eyes never bothered me at all when I cut onions. However, once I had LASIK, cutting onions is a miserable experience for me! Here are some of the tricks that I use when cutting onions: 1.

Buy fresh onions any time you need them. The fresher the onions, the less problems that you will have cutting them. 2.

Put on safety goggles while cutting onions. Yes, they look silly, but they will protect you from the chemicals that come from the onions. 3.

Cut off about 1/2 inch from each end of the onion. Although I'm a big fan of using the entire veggie, I do avoid this part of the onion because most of the eye-irritants are concentrated in this area of the onion.

I didn't realize this already had a best answer when I started working on it - but I'll leave this here anyway. Chewing gum is going to do absolutely nothing to keep the onion fumes away from your eyes. You need a better method of chopping.

And don't do like the guy in the photo - he just smeared onion juice on his face and that is sure to make his eyes water! If you don't mind a little less intense flavor, then the easiest way to avoid having your eyes tear when you cut onions it to use any of the "sweet" variety onions, like Walla Walla Sweets, Vidalia, or the Texas 1015 onion. They have little of the volatile oil that alert your cornea and nerves related to it to the presence of something that might be harmful--that's why your eye responds this way.

Your eyes watering is a reaction that nature intended, according to one of the Basic Science articles at Scientific American. Using an onion a little less high-powered will solve the problem. While holding an onion under water may reduce the effect on the eyes, you're also washing away much of the flavor that is the reason you're using the onion to begin with.So a try a sweet onion, and if you want to compensate for a lighter flavor, use a bit more of it, or do what I do.

Hand chopping onions is only one way to cut up onions. If the tears drive you away from this wonderful and healthy food, then use a different tool to cut them.

I like sweet onions well enough, but there are times when I'm cooking when I want the stronger flavor, so I use the traditional yellow or white onions available in my area, and I chop them with a handy attachment that came on my stick blender.

I picked up a Braun wand mixer a few years ago and it came with a whisk, a tall metal cup, a beater, and a clear bowl (capacity about 2 cups) with a blade in the bottom. In some places I searched this can be bought separately and is called a "chopping attachment." The wand power unit (it is meant only for a specific Braun mixer) fits onto the top and a few pulses and onions are chopped.

I peel the onion, cut off the top brown bit where the stem exited and the bottom tough part where the roots were, and quickly quarter the onion, then drop it in the chopper cup and pulse the wand. In a couple of seconds you have a nicely cut up onion. If you're sensitive to the fumes, then wait until you're at the pan before you remove the cap and pour or scrape the contents into your cooking pan.

The device is made in such a way that the plastic and metal chopping blade pops onto a nub in the bottom and stays on until you pull it off to wash. This way you don't drop your blade into the skillet with the onions.

It looks like my particular model has been off the market for a little while, but they have a newer device that seems to do the same thing and may have a new motor type.

http://www.kitchencontraptions.com/archives/020822.php I am generally of the opinion that one CAN have too many gadgets in the kitchen. I object to specialty items that do only one job. The beauty of this little attachment is that you can use it to chop an onion, to blend your guacamole, to puree fruit, etc. Lots of applications for a small enclosed container when you have a little bit of something to process.

I think you need to give your sister one of these sets for the next gift-giving occasion. I've been using mine for years, it's sturdy, simple to clean (and that is the secret - any gadget that takes longer to clean than to use will rarely ever get used! ), and keeps out the onion fumes.

Bon apatite!

This is what we personally do at our house which works out great for everybody. Cut the onions into halves and dip or soak them in water for a minute or two and then chop them. You will not find any irritation in your eye or will it make you cry.

You would certainly start enjoying cutting onions.

I personally believe that everyone is different and some of us do not tear up when cutting onions and some of us do. I can cut onions all day without tearing BUT it may be because I use onions often and have become used to or immune to the tearing. My daughter can barely cut onions and like you said her nose and eyes run.

I personally either tell my daughter to keep her head farther away from the onion or do not cut them at all. We have tried some methods that are supposed to help you not tear and none have worked for my daughter. I would tell your sister to have someone else cut them.

Sounds like her symptoms are pretty severe. flickr.com/photos/pandapark/1247375796.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.