What is the best way to stop the burning sensation you get in your eyes while chopping onions?

Question

What is the best way to stop the burning sensation you get in your eyes while chopping onions?

Answer 1

Seems to me that my mother used to say that if onions were kept refrigerated they wouldn't cause your eyes to water when you chopped them.

Answer 2

simplest way is to wash the onion before you chop it..

Answer 3

Sorry to be picky, on others answers, don't use a food processor, as this may tend to release to much juice from the onion, making the onion burn faster when your cooking it, if your not careful.    

    Wearing swimmers goggles is kooky but works. The best thing is to stand in a well ventilated place, use a sharp knife(blunt knives tear), don't touch your face with the hand that has touched the onion. The root of the onion should be avoided as it will make you cry the most. Peeling under water can reduce tear potential, but also dilutes flavour, and wastes water.

   With time, one also develops a bit of tolerance, so keep on cutting up those onions

Answer 4

this works perfectly, get a match and lite it(perferbaly a long match) and stick it in your mounth non burning side down, when the gases from the onion go up the flame takes there oxygen wich means no smell witch means no burning or irratation

Answer 5

I think it's better to PREVENT the burning sensation in the first place...

Try cutting the onion on a small cutting board right next to the sink, while the cold water is running.  I don't know why, but it works!

Another thought, though messier for clean-up: use a food processor.

Answer 6

Some onion types are worse than others, I go real fast with the ones with attitude.

Answer 7

I keep my onions in the crisper drawer in the fridge and since I have been doing that I have not cried once while chopping an onion.  

chilling the onion slows the release of the gases that make your eyes water.

Answer 8

lol were goggles? i dunno

Answer 9

Freeze the onion for about an hour

Answer 10

Light a candle and keep it burning close to where you're chopping onions.  The candle somehow dissipates the gasses the onion gives off.  It really works and is quite simple.

Answer 11

Below are some good ideas. Personally I refrigerate the onion for half an hour before chopping, and I always cut the root end last...

ABSORB THE GAS IN WATER

To absorb the gas before it reaches your eyes:

    * Cut the onion under water;

    * Cut the onion near running water or a cloud of steam (from a kettle or pan of water);

    * Chew bread or gum (to produce saliva in your mouth);

    * Breath through your mouth (to draw the gas over your wet tongue); or

    * Stick your tongue out!

SLOW OR STOP THE REACTION THAT MAKES THE GAS

    * Freeze or cool the onion before cutting it;

    * Put vingear on the chopping board (the acid denatures the enzyme);

    * Soak the onion in water (the enzyme is denatured by the water-air boundary); or

    * Soak the onion in salt water (the ionic solution denatures the enzyme).

CUT CAREFULLY TO AVOID RELEASING THE ENZYME

Cut the onion carefully to avoid releasing the enzyme. There are two main methods - cut out a cone around the root of the onion, or cut carefully avoiding cutting into the root area.

   1. Using a sharp knife cut the onion in half along the longest axis;

   2. Peel off the tunic from each half onion;

   3. Place one half flat on a chopping board;

   4. Make cuts down to about a half-inch from the root end;

   5. Cut across, perpendicular to your initial cuts - that dices most of that half of the onion. You are left with the root end and some white flesh.

   6. Cut what you can of the white flesh off, leaving the basal plate intact and avoiding cutting into the shoot (which you can see if you turn over the onion).

Not a tear in sight.

OTHER METHODS

    * Burn a candle near your chopping board (it isn't clear why this works - it might help draw the gas upwards and away from you, or the burning might help remove the gas from the air.)

    * Hold a matchstick (or a toothpick, teaspoon, or wooden spoon) in your mouth - some say the match should be burnt, some unburnt, some burning... which would be fun to watch, if nothing else!

Answer 12

cry.

Really, it washes the sulfuric compounds out of your eyes.

You can try rinsing with water, but don't rub. You have the same sulfur on your hands, and it will just make it worse.

Answer 13

I've seen Alton Brown don safety glasses to stop the sulfur from getting to his eyes  

Answer 14

use a sharp knife

and cut the onion next to the oven while the burner is on