I was cooking dinner last night and while chopping the onions I realized that every time I did it the old cliched reaction occurred. I was tearing up so bad I couldn’t even see, and had to stop to wipe my face a few times. Is there any special trick for avoiding this? None of my cookbooks propose any kind of solution to this. I’ve tried positioning myself so that my head is as far away from the chopping block as possible, but to no avail. Surely there must be something I can do short of wearing safety goggles?
What I have heard on the subject:
Chop underwater (which can be problematic without a snorkel, if you ask me).
Leave the root end of the onion intact while chopping. I have no idea why.
Chop on a salt-covered cutting board. Salt supposedly absorbs the fumes.
My solution, which I can state with confidence works: food processor.
Try chopping the onions underwater. That way the stuff that makes you tear up cant get to your eyes.
Yep, take your onions scuba-diving 
Running the tap and chopping in the sink works just as well, although you don’t get to see the pretty fishes.
Chucking the onions in the fridge for an hour or so (or the freezer for fifteen minutes) works for me.
Failing that, grab yourself a pair of swimming goggles…
Put a match in you mouth, held like a cigarette. My mom-in-law swears by this method. Don’t think it matters if it’s wooden or cardboard, it’s the sulfur that’s the active agent.
Thanks, guys. Water sounds like the most popular method, although I like the image of myself with a lit match in my mouth while I chop onions. That’s probably how he-men like Bruce Willis and Jackie Chan do it. The match does have to be lit, right?
Only if you’re mustachioed. Use what you would have spent on Nads on a second onion.
Back when I worked in the Best Western, I used to make the French Onion Soup.
I’d chop a huge mound of onions amidst a huge cloud of onion vapor. Anyone who so much as poked their head in the kitchen got tear gassed, while I had nary a sniffle.
How come? I was wearing hard contact lenses. Evidently it’s only the iris of the eye that is sensitive to onion juice.
'Course nobody wears hard contacts anymore… I’m guessing soft contacts might not work, especially the gas permeable ones.
I wish Fruit of the Loom would pick up on that hard contact technology. Onions aren’t the only thing that make me tear up.
All the cookbooks I have that address the subject (about three) claim (as did tavalla) that cooling down the onions eliminate the fumes.
It doesn’t work completely, but it sure helps.
How on earth would you chop onions under water?, that sounds almost as ridiculous as Spike Milligan’s seasickness cure (sit under a tree).
The fridge thing ought to work though, because the irritant compounds in onions (I forget what they are called) are volatile.
When your eyes tear up, before wiping your eyes (spreading the oils), wash your hands. THEN wipe your eyes if you like.
I agree that keeping the onions in the fridge makes them less fume-y.
Soft contacts do seem to block the fumes. I was chopping onions and wearing glasses just last night and I couldn’t see for 5 minutes, but I never have a problem if my contacts are in.
I’ve been told that if you keep talking, it isn’t as bad, but that’s never worked for me.
If you need to get the onion smell out of your hands or cutting board when you’re done, wash them with toothpaste.
don’t know why it works but it does: take a sip of water and keep it in your mouth while chopping the onions.
There’s always the advice my mother gave to me: chop faster.
I usually don’t have much of a problem with tearing up, but with very strong onions I find that chewing on a crust of bread helps a lot. I’ve heard that it increases the throughput of tears, and so the nasties in the onion vapour don’t build up as much. Don’t know if that’s true, but it works.
It does seem to have something in common with the suggestions of LittleVoiceFromVienna and Ethilrist: oral activity (Simmer down!)
hmm i read somewhere said you chew gum while chopping
the extra salva uses up water in the face area so it stings
but you don’t cry , mmm thats worse then oh bum
Breathe through your mouth rather than your nose. Actually more difficult than it sounds, but the old clothes peg on the nose should do the job. Also don’t cut through the root 'till before cutting the rest of the onion up.
Put a piece of bread in your mouth, and hold it there until done cutting. This works almost as well as cutting under water.