Cooking Tip

[chris]

yesterday while starting to chop a whole lot of onions and my eyes were starting to tear, I remembered hearing (possibly form Rachel Ray) that if you chew on a toothpick yours eyes won't tear. Seriously she said I don't know why but it seems to work. Well I thought I'd give it a try and lo and behold it seemed to stop my eyes from tearing. Go figure but stick this tip in your cook book next to some thing that requires chopping onions (alot) in case you forget this tip. ;D

[Clipper]

I have an even better way to avoid tears while chopping onions and my eyes never tear. I just let Kathy chop the onions, lol. ;D ;D

Only joking. I use a little chopper thing that Kathy's mother left behind when she passed away. It is one of those "slap chopper" things that you put the onion in and slap the plunger repeatedly until the onion is chopped to the desired size dice. Kathy uses a chefs knife and I think she puts a piece of bread in her mouth to keep her from crying.

[chris]

Clipper I was using that same chopper but you have to cut the ends off and peel the onions first and then cut them quarters before you start to chop. (Pampered Chef and its a great little tool for the money)

[virgilgal]

I will try this Chris! Always game to save my eyes as we eat a lot of onions! This reminded me of a cooking and nutrition class we did a few years ago with immigrants from Burma. They spoke very little English but were incredibly interested in learning about new foods in their new country. A woman who helped me with the class said she had heard that if you put a slice of onion on your head it stops the tears. She put one on her head and so did everyone else. I didn't see that it helped but it stuck with everyone for the remainder of the series and someone was always wearing an onion slice on their head! You just can't make that stuff up!

[Clipper]

Kathy cuts the onion in half, leaves the stem and root ends on, peels back the skin, and cuts a fine cross hatched pattern in the open end of the onion. She then slices very thinly and comes out with a very fine and uniform dice.

For Christmas one of the more practical gifts I bought her was one of the new slicers that works like a mandolin with a sliding carriage that keeps your fingers safe by allowing you to simply push down a lever to make the product being sliced slide over the blade. Very ingenious name, "Slice O Matic" LOL. It is great for slicing potatoes for home fries or scalloped potatoes. It also has a julienne blade that you can install. I will have to see if that is suitable for dicing and onion. It is the one thing that I have ever purchased that I saw on TV that actually does what they say it will do.

I just told Kathy the story about putting the slice of onion on your head and she is still laughing. She says it would hardly be worth the trouble because she would have to shampoo the smell out of her hair afterward.

[Deleted]

I store onions in a brown bag on the bottom shelf of the frig. The cold onion along with runnig the cold water faucet in the kitchen when chopping oinons will prevent tears. Also dull knifes or those vegetable chopping ie; vegematic etc will make you tear up. The sulfer gas is attracted to the running faucet water rather than the tear ducts in your eyes. Dull blades cause spatter of the gas increasing production, so more tears.

[chris]

Guess what......who would ever have thought that something so simple has a zillion articles/videos on line on How to Chop an Onion.....I was amazed. Gentleman start your choppers. ;D