Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 19, 2012

i thought the trick was holding a piece of bread on your mouth

The real trick is to freeze the onion before cutting it.

Buy chopped onions

Fridge is as good as freezer and easier to chop.

I thought you had to peel it under running water.

no put your head under water and chop fast………..

You need to take it in the shower with you.

Get someone else to chop it.

Where’s the Veg-O-Matic when you need it?

None of the tricks I’ve tried have actually worked (bread in mouth etc). Last summer we bought 50lbs of vidalia onions from a farmer in Georgia and had them shipped to our house (very reasonable price and free shipping). Delicious onions…we chopped or chunked a good bit of them and froze them on trays then put them into freezer bags to use later. Now I just drop a chunk or two into my soups or stews, stir fry, etc. No more tears and sooo easy. We are gonna do that next year, too!

Just buy sweet onions, problem solved. And the stores pretty much carry sweet onions year round now. In the summer here in Oregon we get to have Walla Walla (WA) Sweets show up in the stores. Nothing like eating a DELICIOUS hamburger that you just grilled in the backyard. Add spread to the bun, add a quarter inch thick slice of Walla Walla Sweet onion, add the beef patty, add ketchup, then add another quarter inch slice of Walla Walla Sweet onion, add tomato, lettuce, pickles and whatever else you add to your burger, then the other half of the bun and chow down.As long as I only do that a couple times a year, it doesn’t mess with my health to bad. Much better than BK or McD burgers!

What are Arlo and Janis going to eat that they are going to put HOT onions on it?

My boyfriend’s mother swears by keeping a cup of water next to the cutting board. My eyes are really sensitive to onions though, so nothing works for me.

t eat onions, that’s my motto.

When I have my contacts in, cutting onions is doesn’t affect my eyes at all. When I have my glasses on and cut onions, my eyes water like crazy.

Contact lenses. Alternatively, swimming goggles (you can get them at cooking stores now). I’m a professional chef, and I see this in action all the time, and on the rare occasions I wear my glasses when cutting onions, I cry like a baby. (BTW, you can tell a method is bunk when it “usually” works or “supposedly” works.)

I don’t usually have any problem with onions. But if I get a strong one a lighted candle works well to burn the sulfenic acid in the air. Make sure the candle is very close to your work area. :)

The match trick never worked for me. Bruce4671 has it pegged on how the onion works its magic with your eyes and sinuses. I’ve found that if I hold my nose (i.e., breathe through my mouth) the onions don’t affect me nearly so much. They’re already refrigerated and sweet (either Vidalia or Peru or Walla Walla when we can get them!)

“Honey, would you chop the onions while I (insert excuse here)?”

Hey, Arlo, light the match and try it! Oh, man, I love onions…..I think God made them on his day of rest, just for fun…….probably garlic, too…

“Ice water…you want some ice water? Peel some onions…that’ll make your eyes water.”.Marx (c. 1928)

man up, tuck your fingers under and, chop fast !

Room for one more? According to Alton Brown, when cutting onions, avoid cutting the root base. Ordinary slicing isn’t such a problem. If dicing, halve the onion pole-to-pole, as it were, then slice just short of the root base.

My 17-year-old swears by chewing gum while he chops. I just keep an old pair of plastic safety goggles in the kitchen cupboard (the ones that stick to your face like a scuba mask). Not a pretty picture, I know.

I have nothing to say because by the time I got to the end of the comments I’d forgotten the comic.

another ‘old-wives’ tale

I’ve heard that dunking onions in ice cold water for 30-60 seconds dulls the pungency so you can chop without tears.

Here’s the solution I once used for avoiding burning eyes from onions. An hour before you cut the onion, place it in a cup of water with one tablespoon of lemon juice mixed in it. It really works!

About that soup recipe I gave yesterday, I forgot to mention to add 1 lb of stewing beef to the tomato paste and water mixture.Sorry.

actually lemon juice on the cutting board works well, just do not put so much down that your onion flies off the board a little goes a long way

@ Ken Chevy – “Hot onions” are for adding into just about any casserole, meatloaf, hamburger patties, sandwich fillings (think tuna or chicken salad), etc.; or slice ‘em up and saute (or grill) them (add green peppers too) till they’ve carmelized and pile them onto your steak sub or spread on top of a frozen pizza before popping it into the oven to punch up the flavor; pressure cook them whole and they emerge soft and sweet as candy. Yellow and white onions are cheap and tasty, good for your blood, bulbs. :-)

Except for fajitas, where one Bermuda onion lasts about half a year, I use wild onions from my yard. They are free and I can delay mowing for a month “until the onion crop is in”. All are frozen and chopped or sliced as needed. A serrated knife cuts frozen onions easily (also green peppers for the fajitas).

I think Janis is just pulling his leg!

A comprehensive list of all of the tear-avoiding remedies can be found at:

http://suppermanchef.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/the-crying-game-onion-cutting-solutions-examined/

What ever happened to the standard solution of sniffing Lemon Juice!!!

Wearing a divers’ set of goggles also works, IF you put them on before you start.

kathymcel: Yeah, but don’t have the flavor of wild ones. Cut off the little roots and the green part before freezing. Also, one more point regarding fajita onions: slice them before freezing, when ready to use, cut through the ring to make a strip.

I have always used this never fail procedure…….I don’t eat onions, therefore there are no tears! Try it, it works every time! (true confession time: I can’t eat onions. I have an allergy to them. And garlic. Drove my mom nuts!)