Cry not for me, says the onion

Filed in archive Tricks & Techniques on January 15, 2006

My beloved bulb, what would I do without you? Life would be so bland!

Whether as a main ingredient or used like an herb to make food more tasty, in simple or complex dishes, onions (Allium cepa) have become indispensable to many kitchens around the world. Onions enrich and bring out the flavour of meats and vegetables that many cuisines would be decidedly incomplete without them.

Preparing onions however, literally brings pain to the cook. Eye and nose membranes are irritated when coming in contact wth the fumes emitted by these tasty bits. Hence the feeling of having been tear-gassed. Through the years, there have been techniques employed by cooks the world over. These can range from adding a piece of bread to the base of the knife to holding a matchstick between the teeth to wearing goggles. *Tee hee!*

Three techniques that work for me with varying stages of success are:

• Freezing the onions for thirty minutes before slicing. Chilling onion juices make them less likely to dissolve into a fine mist. This technique works if I plan things way ahead of time. Impromptu cooking necessitates other techniques.


• Place some salt on the chopping board, between you and the onions. Salt has hygroscopic or absorptive properties. This works if slicing or chopping onions in small amounts.


• Lighting a candle near the chopping board. The flame draws in the fumes and burns it up as hot air. This is quite an effective technique except that more than one candle is required if chopping more than one large onion.

A combination of 2 & 3 have done me well on heavy-duty cooking days. I now slice onions without tears. Try one or all of the techniques and let me know if they work for you too.

Hmmm... now I'm craving for onion rings.