Happy Wednesday everyone! As you all know, I like to cook. I use onions in virtually every meal I make b/c I love them. Up until about 2 years ago, I never had any issues with my eyes watering because of onions, but once I got Lasik (which was amazing), things have changes. My eyes water and burn incredibly bad EVERY time I try to cut one. I’ve tried lighting a candle, holding my head over steaming water (tried that one last night and it worked pretty well actually), I’ve tried wearing giant sun glasses to keep the oils from getting in my eyes; all to no avail.
What’s the trick here? What am I missing??!! How can I continue to use one of my favorite veggies when it’s literally painful to do so? What other tips am I missing?
Story of a Pink Zebra 
Use frozen, prechopped onions when you can. If you are cooking until they are translucent, you wont be able to tell the difference. Also, how are you chopping them? Extend your arms fully, because even a small distance will result in r^3 increase in volume, and therefore reduce the concentration of volatiles accordingly. Also, use a very sharp, very thin blade so you slice instead of crush. If its a very juicy onion, I tend to rinse it once or twice while I’m cutting. If its really bad, I make my wife do it 🙂
Onions are a near-daily appearance on my plate. I make sure my knife is very sharp, but when I do have trouble with an onion it’s usually one I’ve had around for awhile. My solution is usually just to turn the stove vent fan on to clear the air. I’ve also heard of running your wrists under cold water and refrigerating the onion for a bit prior to cutting. I also use frozen pre-cut onions for a variety of meals prepared with many different cooking methods. I tend to cut up several onions at a time for freezing and I would also suggest watching a tutorial of a chef’s method of dicing onions to save yourself some time. It’s easier than it looks. Just start with wides slices until you get the hang of it. Hope this helps some, onions are a delicious treat!
Also, green onions/ scallions can be frozen but do tend to lose some texture depending on cooking method. A great way to do it is to chop and freeze on sheets and then pour into an empty water bottle. They should not stick together or be crushed this way and you just pour out what you need.
I’m just so proud of my kids and their great ideas!
No tips here but wanted to tell you that you aren’t alone! I too could cut any type of onion with absolutely no problem until I had Lasik. I never understood the crying thing at all. Now I can’t even make it through a single green onion or shallot! I’m glad I found this post to see someone else had this problem and I’m not crazy…
While I hate knowing you are in as much pain/discomfort as me, misery does love company! Hopefully some of these tips will help us both!
Never tried it but I heard putting a sugar cube in your mouth while cutting them will help. Put the onion under water, then chop it (water absorbs the onion’s gas)
Put lime juice on the knife blade before chopping (the acid of the lime reacts with the gas of the onion)
Chill the onion before cutting it (chilling changes the chemical compound in the onion which causes it to release less gas)
hew gum this causes you to breathe through your mouth, inhibiting the amount of gas that gets into your nose)
Hope those help 🙂