The Foolproof Tricks You Need To Cut Onions Without Crying

For many of us, it's our least favorite thing to do in the kitchen — even more so than unloading the dishwasher or trying to peel the skin off of apples for our children. Peeling and chopping onions always ends in tears. Your eyes are on fire, your hands smell awful, and you have to pause to dab away the tears running down your cheeks before continuing with the prep work. 

Onions make us cry as a means of defense. While growing underground, onions could potentially be the star of dinner for moles, voles, rabbits, and other hungry critters. So, to prevent being eaten, onions release enzymes and sulfenic acid if their skin is broken. These two elements — once let loose — combine and create propanethial S-oxide gas, which burns eyes, makes noses runny, and is generally unpleasant.

If you're thinking you can simply swap the type of onion that's making you cry for a different, less upsetting variety, that isn't necessarily the case. Some sweeter and smaller varieties of onions like green onions and chives may make you cry less, but they'll still cause some irritation for some folks. As a means of battling these alliums, there are a few home remedies and special equipment items you can try.

There are a few at home tips and tricks to help keep you from tearing up while cutting those perfectly thin onion slices. First, many folks say that chilling your onions may slow the release of those irritating gases. Either keep your onions in the refrigerator for a few hours before chopping, or put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes before you start. Another option is to make your kitchen as breezy as possible to keep the onion's noxious fumes from making a beeline for your corneas. Turn on your oven fan to high and chop near it, or grab that little personal fan from your kid's carseat and pop it right next to the onion, pushing the fumes away from you.

Alternatively, you can also bring Captain Planet's favorite things — the elements — into the mix in your onion-cutting adventure. Cutting near an open flame is allegedly a way to combat the fumes from the onion, because the flame pulls in some of the propanethial S-oxide before it can reach your eyes. Another, perhaps more difficult, trick is to cut the onion under water. Fill a large glass bowl with water — large enough that you can maneuver your knife — and literally cut the onion in and under the water while it's submerged. This seems a bit dangerous, but the water will prevent the fumes from reaching your eyes.

Of course, there's also plenty of specialized equipment to be used in the battle against your onions. First, and perhaps least fashion-forward, are onion goggles. These look like swim goggles — and probably could double as such — and work the same way any goggles would: They keep stuff out of your eyes. In this case, they're blocking onion fumes from getting too close. Nose plugs can be worn too, as long as we're getting into the swim equipment. They work by blocking the fumes from hitting your nose, which can prevent the running, tearing, and other symptoms that come with chopping onions.

Possibly one of the best specialized items when it comes to chopping onions is a very sharp knife. Keeping knives prepped and ready for onion chopping can help the whole ordeal go faster and smoother, since the sharpened blade will bruise the flesh less and you'll sail through prep work a lot faster. No matter which tool, tip, or trick you use to prevent those tears, it may be worth some crying simply for the onion's sheer versatility in recipes.