I recently shared a tip on Instagram about using a vegetable peeler to slice onions, and I mentioned in passing that I hate cutting onions because it always makes me cry. And because I have such amazing readers and followers, that passing comment received a veritable flood of helpful replies about ways to cut onions without crying! So I picked out the very best ones, and I’m excited to share them with all of you today! :-)
But first, I wanted to quickly address the obvious question behind this topic—why do onions make us cry when we cut them??
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Why Do Onions Make Us Cry?
When you cut into an onion, the onion releases enzymes that break down into an acidic gas. That gas travels through the air and into your eyes, where it causes a painful stinging sensation. That painful sensation then triggers your tear ducts to release tears as a way to flush out the irritating substance.
To avoid those tears, you need to protect your eyes from that irritating onion gas. These 9 tips do just that, and will help you avoid that stinging sensation and the tears that come with it!
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9 Brilliant Tips For Cutting Onions Without Crying
1. Freeze Them
According to the Food Network show Food Detectives, freezing an onion for about 30 minutes before you cut it is one of the most effective ways to reduce tears. Freezing helps to reduce the amount of acid enzyme that gets released into the air, making the experience much less painful for you!
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2. Breathe Through Your Mouth
When you breathe through your mouth while cutting an onion, the gas will be drawn away from your olfactory nerves. Your olfactory nerves are closely linked to your tear ducts, so keeping the gas away from these areas helps prevent tears from being triggered in the first place.
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3. Use A Slicer
One way to minimize your suffering while cutting onions is to get it done as quickly as possible! Use a mandoline slicer or the slicer side of a box grater to slice an onion fast. (Another advantage of using a slicer rather than a knife is that you can keep your eyes farther away from the action!)
4. Chew Gum
Start chewing a piece of gum a few minutes before you start cutting an onion. The gum will stimulate saliva production in your mouth, and saliva can absorb the pain-inducing onion gas. (Just make sure to breathe through your mouth while cutting!)
5. Use Your Exhaust Fan
The exhaust fan above your stove can help whisk the onion gas up and away before it gets into your eyes. Set up a cutting board near the stove, and turn the exhaust fan on before you start cutting the onion.
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More Ideas You'll Love
6. Light A Candle
When you light a candle, the flame draws in the surrounding air to feed itself. You can use this to your advantage by lighting a candle before cutting an onion so that the flame draws the onion gas away from your eyes!
7. Wear Goggles
The irritating onion gas can’t sting your eyes if it can’t reach your eyes in the first place! Don a pair of goggles before you start cutting an onion to keep your eyes safe and sound. (Yes, you’ll look a bit silly, but it beats looking like you were recently attacked with pepper spray!)
8. Use A Sharp Knife
The problem-causing onion enzymes get released when onion cells are crushed. Dull knives crush more cells than sharp knives do. Ensure that your knife is super sharp before cutting an onion to minimize the sting!
9. Utilize Steam
Steamy air rises quickly, and it can help draw onion gas away from your eyes while you’re cutting. Just boil a pot or kettle of water, then slice your onion somewhere close to the rising steam.
Do you have a favorite tip for cutting onions that isn’t listed here?
I run the cold tap beside the cutting board. It helps a lot!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.THIS WORKS!! With a small paring knife in hand, place your thumb down onto the root, and carefully cut around the root – a shallow cut – so when the piece of onion comes off, it is diamond shaped. By coring the root, you instantly get rid of the gasses and milky juice from the onion which causes watery eyes. I will remove any loose papery skins to prevent slipping. I hold the onion in my other hand to make certain it doesn’t slip. I use a lot of onions and keep them in the fridge in a lidded glass jar. They keep for several days without getting strong and icky.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks Nancy! I love your tip about how to store the onions.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Put the whole onion before peeled in microwave for 15 seconds. Works for me.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Turn a burner on the stovetop and exhaust fan as well. No problems.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I don’t cry as long as I don’t cut near the root. I waste a little bit of the onion but not much.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.To help keep the tears away while cutting an onion I use two bobby pins! Place one bobby pin in the corner of your mouth with the rubber ends sticking out. Now keep your lips closed the whole time your are handling the onion. After, and only after, you are completely finished cutting, slicing, or dicing your onions you can remove the bobby pins and carry on as normal. Has worked for me for years.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I previously worked in the restaurant business. While there, we used a mandolin to slice, and a french fry cutter to dice onions. The speed of these machines did minimize the effect of teary eyes. But just yesterday, i did don a pair of my husband’s safety glasses while dicing onions at home. They worked perfectly. Also kept exhaust fan running
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’m from Georgia where sweet VIDALIA onions ( a low sulfur variety, grown in southwest Georgia) are available in produce departments year-round. Sweet onions have the reputation of being tear-free. There are sweet onions grown in other parts of the country. If tearing while cutting onions bothers you, ask the produce manager for a low-sulfur variety.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I believe coring from the root to the center of an onion before slicing should be number one on your list of tears free onion prep. tips. Check out the video below from Jack Scalfini, the man behind the Cooking with Jack Show, to see this method in actiond%20Hacks%20__%20WonderHowTo.html
Please log in or create a free account to comment.People who wear contacts will also find that it prevents tearing from onions.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My mom taught me as a young girl to hold a piece of sliced bread in my mouth, as kind of a “fume filter”, lol. Sounds silly, but it actually works!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I don’t remember how I learned it, but I’ve been breathing through my mouth for years while I cut onions and they never make me cry. All your ideas are good, but just breathing through your mouth is so easy you won’t need the other suggestions.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve been using cheap safety goggles for years while I cut onions. Swimming goggles and glasses specially made for onion-cutting didn’t work as well.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Same here. Keep safety glasses in knife drawer. Easy and effective.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have found that if I rinse the onion before, and sometimes during, cutting the onion can help curb the tears. Rinsing the knife often as you cut the onion also helps.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.How do you peel them?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.May not be as good of a suggestion as the others, but instead of the close pin on your nose (ouch!) to breathe through your mouth, hold a matchstick (unlit of course ) between your teeth.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I discovered the fan trick several years ago when I had a fan on and realized when I finished that I wasn’t crying.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I saw a tip on an old cooking show from the 1970’s, The Frugal Gourmet, cut the root off first. No idea why it works but it hasn’t failed me yet!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You are on the right track Debbie. It has been my understanding the most potent part is the root end. I will use your method next time and see the results. I was always leaving the root end till last to avoid tearing, but taking it off first would be more sensible.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I keep onions in the crisper drawer of my fridge and I never cry when slicing them.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I light a candle when cooking bacon on the stovetop. Had no idea why it worked, but now I do! Have found that if I keep my lips closed when cutting an onion it helps keep me from crying. Seems counter to what ur saying though.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I used to have such a problem with runny eyes and nose whenever I cut onions that my husband bought me the special goggles to wear. They work, but the problem is that when I wear them I can’t read the recipe because I need my reading glasses. I then read somewhere that running the onion under cold water before cutting it and placing a glass of water next to the chopping board that you are using to chop the onion on is an old chef’s trick, so I tried it and it works beautifully!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve found since I wear contacts they help block some of the tear causing gas from my eyes. I have some problems if the onions haven’t been cut. Usually it’s not as bad after the onion has been partially cut.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I experienced this same thing. When I wore contacts cutting onions didn’t bother me at all. I had lasik done 8 years ago and now I cry like crazy when cutting a room temperature onion. There’s times when I have only half an onion left over so I save it in the fridge and when I get around to using and cutting the leftover onion it doesn’t cause me to cry at all when it has been refrigerated.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I read to cut them with cold water running. Works for me. Freezing them makes them mushy. I just came up with a new idea today for cutting lemons. They just dont look that good anymore, skin had bumps on it and dark dots..like it had acne. I didnt want any of that coming off when i squeezed the pieces so…ta- da…i peeled them first. How about that. I quit using one of those squeezer things. Seemed like i got more juice doing it by hand..and believe me i have arthritic hands. I tried your lemon vinegar and i enjoy it. I use vinegar for all my cleaning. Thanks Jillee
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Water cancels the effect of enzymes … Just place the onion under water, that’s what chefs do in restaurants. Much simpler
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I forgot: Steam IS water…. (tip #9)….
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Do you mean to keep it under water while slicing or chopping it? I can’t picture being able to do actually do that.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.COLD water works best. Leave the root.
Yes the other methods work too. I’ll try the candle next time. I actually leave an onion in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. It helps.
@ ali No. You peel the onion – you only start crying when the onions are peeled. Just water them immediately and then do what you want, slice them, chop them. You don’t need to keep them under water all the time.
I learned a much simpler trick from the Flylady website years ago. Put the onion root side down on your cutting board and cut completely through the middle. Peel the outside dry layers. If you are right handed place the root end of one half to your left. Make horizontal cuts from top to bottom being careful not to cut all the way into the root end. Then make vertical cuts from the right side till you are close to the root end. One half chopped onion, no tears. Repeat with other half. Something about cutting into the root releases the fumes.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve always cut the root out before cutting. Its like a little plug at the end of the onion.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.The root end does hold more of the gas & it does help to leave it intact. I’ve been cutting onions this way for many years. It helps but I’m still blinded with tears. I’ve tried it all & still… My mom or partners laugh when they walk in on me with my onion goggles, water running, candle going, chewing gum or biting down on a wooden spoon. Anything I’ve heard I’ve tried individually as well as together. Physically shielding the eye seems to be the most helpful, leaving the root area intact & setting up two chopping stations across from each other, preferably with a window open seems to work the best for me. I peel & chop one onion then cover with a bowl, discard it’s trash while moving on across the way to do the same. For good measure I’m usually whipping around the a kitchen towel to disperse any remaining fumes in the area that I’m going back to. Chopping multiple onions is a project for me.
Guess what my mom’s favorite soup is? FRENCH ONION! She would always request for me to make some when the opportunity arose until one morning she woke up to find me slowly chopping away. A comment flew about no wonder onions bother my eyes so much if I chop that slow. I look up at her with steamed goggles, turn my head to look in her general vicinity. Swollen red orbs filled with tears streaming down cheeks looking in the direction of the wall about a foot away instead of her. That said it all. She finished chopping with nary a tear. She never requested French onion again. I still made it though. A true labor of love for sure!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have chopped onions that way for years. No tears, and easy to slice or chop. Maybe I learned it from the FlyLady, but it might have been from a show on the food channel.
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