I Love ONION to Tears

I have a love/hate relationship with onions.

It's really not possible to flavor food without them. Don't play devil's advocate with me here and start talking about the virtues of garlic. Besides, garlic and onion are in the same family right? Roots covered in paper that make your breath stink. I'm  pretty sure that's the scientific way to classify foods.

The problem? Onion brings me to tears!

This is no small problem, especially when you have blonde eye-lashes and wear as much mascara as I do.

The worst is holidays or dinner parties, when I have people coming over and am dicing onions by the bushel. I use to have to keep a gallon of water on hand, drinking compulsively so I would get dehydrated from a steady stream of stinging onion tears.

Solution: Resort to onion powder? NEVER!

Martha Stewart suggested lighting a candle next to your cutting board. The flame burns the chemical released by the onion, which brings on the water works. I love you Martha, but you're WAY OFF on this one.

I've covered my nose and mouth with a kerchief to keep from breathing in the tear inducing fumes. Not good enough.

I tried taking a big slurp of water and holding it in my mouth while cutting. This was NOT my idea. It IS ridiculous. I talk way to much to just hold water in my mouth. And if you start to laugh, things get messy . . . and contaminated.

Goggles? That was my idea. Talk about messing up your eye make-up. Dumb idea.

However, when I lived in North Dakota, the hot humid summers in upstairs apartments used to turn my onions to black slime in no time. Being a girl that likes to buy in bulk, I refused to surrender my red mesh bag of inexpensive onions to individual onions that I would use up then wonder, "Why don't I ever have onions when I need 'em?"

Instead, I kept buying my 5lb bags and put them in my fridge's cold crisper instead of a cool dry place, like a cellar.

A magical thing happened . . .

The onions became far less offensive and tear inducing when raw. Reason? The amino acid sulfoxides become far less active when cold. Their dispersal area is less. Result - fewer tears!

If you don't have room in your refrigerator to store your onions, simply think ahead and chill your onion before you cut into it: about 1 hour in the fridge or 10 minutes in the freezer (don't actually freeze the onion though).

Your welcome!