How to Chop an Onion Without Crying - CHOW Tip

Russell Jackson, chef-owner of Lafitte in San Francisco, knows that chopping onions can be a real pain in the eye sometimes. In this CHOW Tip he shares a few ideas that might make your onion prep a bit more bearable.

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TRANSCRIPT
Onions make you cry. They make you cry miserably and these are some of the tips that I think are going to help you to not cry like a ten year old child. If you store your onions in the refrigerator, it'll chill it down enough that it won't allow that sulfuric acid to build up. Changing the chemistry through water is also really, really simple way. Ice water, dunk it in for thirty seconds or actually even boiling water, you can drop that in for thirty seconds. This will, of course, change the texture of the onion. The next thing is use a really sharp knife. Go ahead and start out by cutting the root off and that'll release the gas. And you should be working in a well-ventilated area. One of the funny, and really interesting, things is you take a piece of bread and you pop it in your mouth and you chop the onion with the bread in your mouth then you won't cry.

[mikpugz]

I cut onions with a copper and brass diving helmet on and that works well!

[JSoulXxX]

Wouldve been nice to see this video before our neighborhood dinner yesterday. I was chopping onions for hamburgers and by the end of it, it was more convenient to just have onion soup

[jurtrypik]

but i always cry because i feel sorry for the onion :(

[rejectofthemoon]

i like this guy.. we need more of him..

[nordthernlights]

I used to peel 50-70kg onion/day for a year.At the beginning I did cry a lot.Now I am immune, no onion make me cry.The video is cool tho.

[pspearman]

Cutting off both onion ends works for me. The bulb that makes you tear is in the center. You can cut all around the onion and u can discard that center bulb or throw it in last. I use to cut the onion straight down the middle resulting in two halfs. That was exactly where the tearing was....never again.

[gpmo]

The cold water trick actually worked pretty well, thanks.

[CyberStriker]

Why not mix those onions with some nice Doritos Consomme?

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[iceloop]

lol - the bread in mouth made me laugh.

[BoringGamingHD]

Rinse the knife in Doritos Consomme after each cut

[queenofscore]

Easier way: I wear swimming goggles while chopping onion.

[MM-obti]

Lol. This is the funniest video on CHOW I have seen yet. This guy is hilarious. The bread joke and crying like a 10 year old child when cutting onions were just great.

[vanessawebster]

I spoked them in iced lemon water, and it worked wonders...

[MrMikeProductionz]

THIS GUY IS A CONTESTANT ON THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR!!

[michaelbellinger]

WRONG... You heard it here.  I have a book from the 1930's from my aunts whose estate paper work ended up with me.  The secret to prevent eye watering is to run the knife through a lemon before you cut the onion.  It doesn't say why this works, or for how long it lasts, but it sounds good.  I use Vidalia onions mostly, so the crying doesn't usually happen with them.  Try it, it should work.  Grandma's wisdom.. Add to that my own tip which he shows but doesn't get it. When I was a line cook we did many banquets which meant peeling 25 pound bags of onions. What I came up with to make it easier to peel the maddening dry skins was to take the whole bag and wet it in the big sink. After a couple of minutes wet, the outer skins re-hydrate and they are much easier to get off. Then use your knife edge to catch the edges of the skins and it's much more precise to get them off than using your finger nails. I do this with every onion before I peel them, it makes the whole thing a breeze.

[ellynline]

popping the onion the the freezer for 2 minutes also helps alot.

[mach]

Some onions seem to cause tears more than others — is there an explanation for this, or am I just imagining things?

[girlishgamer]

A good tip would also be to wet your wrists with water because the gas is attracted to moisture.

[nyxdausen]

Hopefully I don’t cry while i record myself cut the onions tomorrow

[wmg]

Actually, one of those cheap plastic fans right beside the board works like a charm.
I could have sworn that was also a chow tip?
At any rate, it works.
Which is more than I can say for most of that video.
A sharp knife is good, otherwise, not so much.