When Life Gives You Onions....Chop Them Without Tears

Life is like an Onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.

- Carl Sandburg

This is a great simile but in reality, we tend to weep almost every time we chop onions. I learnt by observation over a period of time that this is not completely true as well. I have personally experienced tearless onion chopping. This post was inspired by a question posted on one of the food groups that I am a part of on Facebook- "Is there any way we can chop onions without weeping?" To be honest, I thought it was common knowledge on how one could tearlessly chop onions but the post made me realise that there are still quite a few people who may not be aware.

If you browse the internet, you will find several hacks which may work as well. However, I would like to share with you what really works for me- Refrigerate the onions for at least 30 minutes before chopping them. You need to start chopping them almost immediately and not let them come back to room temperature. 

The Science Behind this Hack:

When we chop onions, syn-propanethial-S-oxide is released which reaches our eyes, irritate them and cause watering. The molecules of the this compound are made less volatile when refrigerated and does not rush up to our eyes as soon as we begin to cut into onions. So, it is important that you chop up the onions before they reach room temperature. It would take a good 10-15 mins for the chilled onions to arrive at room temperature which is more that enough for you to do the chopping, unless of course you are planning to chop up a huge quantity of onions- in which case you should invest some time in planning.

The other thing to remember is- do not store onions in the refrigerator for days, months, years, decades and centuries. It could lead them to spoil, not to mention the stench, and then, you would be weeping for different reasons. Just pop them in the refrigerator just 30 minutes before chopping them. If you are in a great hurry, just put them in the freezer for about 6-8 minutes before chopping.

Let us give the onions what they deserve- a happy, joyful devouring rather than an irritable, tearful one.