Put Onions In The Freezer To Avoid A Tear When Chopping Onions

Put onions in the freezer to avoid A Tear when chopping onions : Do you dread chopping onions? Not a good question to ask, you may say, since every home cook dreads it. Some, like me, in fact suffer from stinging eyes for few hours after chopping onions. However, I could never avoid adding onions to all my dishes, as they are always required to enhance flavors.

So, after exploring many methods, I finally tried the most tested but lesser used hack, freezing onions before chopping. It actually worked.

This is what you should do.

Keep the onion for 15 minutes in the freezer and then chop them. The only problem with this hack is it gets l ittle tougher to cut as it freezes partially and also it will be difficult to remove the outermost layer sometimes. However, it surely reduces the irritation. I would not say the irritation would be nil, there will be little but manageable irritation. And, difficulty in chopping is any day better than wasting your tears over onions.

This is how it works.

The onion-chopping induced tears is caused because of a volatile sulphur compound in the onion. It floats into your eyes and makes them tear. In simple terms, every onion has a core bulb containing sulphur-based gas. When you cut, this gas is released and makes contact with the water in our eyes, forming an acid and thus creating a burning sensation. When you freeze the onions, the chillness slows down this enzyme activity. Freezing reduces the tendency for the sulfur compound to volatize. So, when you cut it, the amount of gas released is lesser, thus keeping you safe from crying.