How To Cut An Onion Without Crying Using This Very Effective Technique

Did you ever wonder why slicing onions make you cry?

Did you know that when you cut an onion it releases gas called Propanethiol S-oxide.

This gas irritates the eyes which results to tears because it forms sulphuric acid as it reacts to the water of our eyes.

There are three types of tears: emotional, basal and reflexive tears.

Emotional tears is when a person cries because of emotions (happiness, depression and the like), basal tears lubricate the eyes and the eyelid to protect the eyes while reflex tears are response tears when an irritating matter gets in to our eyes like smoke, dust and onion gas.

This is why every time we cut an onion; we tear up because the gas released by the onion irritates our eyes.

There are many ways to prevent eye irritation while slicing an onion.

You can put the onion inside the fridge or freezer before slicing to lessen the gas released, or slice an onion dipped in water, lighting a candle near the chopping board help the gas drawn to it and not in our eyes, or turning off fans while chopping onion to stop spread of gas but sometimes it still make us cry.

The best technique is:

The most effective way to cut an onion is to remove the part that makes us cry, the root. Get your knife and cut 1/3 deep at the bulb, slice it around but the cut should be a cone shape inside. The sliced bulb will come out and then put it away. Peel the skin of the remaining onion and then slice it at the end point where the root was so it will stay in one whole piece. Then you may cut it with your desired slice according to your recipe without tearing up! Check out the video to see the step by step procedure and technique.

Watch video here: