DON'T CRY FOR ME...NO TEAR ONION CHOPPING

They say that people are either a cook or a baker. If that is true then, I must say I'm a bakers. I enjoy baking.

Cooking? Not so much.

It seems like there is so much prep in cooking. Cutting everything up in small bits.

Oh, and the onions! Those onions that always make me cry like a baby.

I have very sensitive eyes and they water for a lot of different reasons. But, put me near an onion and they burn so badly, I can't even describe it. Tears stream down like waterfalls.

I had to find out ways to get around this now that I'm cooking more.

I found some great tips. However, I do believe I found the perfect answer. Since, I don't think I'm alone in crying over onions, I wanted to share with you what I found.

The best tip is to stick your onion in the freezer for about 20 minutes before you are going to chop them.

This works every time! If you do nothing else. Freeze those onions first! You can thank me later.

Also, never cut off the root of the onion.

The reason onions make you cry is because they release a gas that is trapped inside the cells of the onions.

Freezing helps to keep the gas from being released.

Keeping the root on works because, there are more cells with gas near the root area then any other part of the onion.

Take your chilled onion, cut it in half with the root still intact.

Then take off the skin of the onion. Now you are ready to chop your onion.

Use a sharp knife as you do this. The sharp knife will rupture fewer onion cells. Therefore, less gas will be released.

Slice your onion into strips first. Don't go all the way down to the root though. Remember, you don't want to cut the root off.

Once you have all your slices it will still hold together if you do it right.

Cut your onion in closer strips for smaller pieces. Further away will make bigger pieces.

Then, turn the onion and make slices across all the strips. Again, the smaller the slices, the smaller your pieces will be.

Here you can see how your onions will be perfect and the root is still attached to the end of the onion.

Plus, you are not crying.

Other ways they claim that help with tears, though I have not tried them, is to cut your onions near your stove with the flame on. Since fire sucks in air to burn, they claim the air will go towards the flame and stay away from your eyes.

Or, you could cut your onions under water. The gas will be released into the water and not the air. I find this one just silly.

While I'm sure it would work, who wants to fish out all your little pieces of onions? Not me.

Oh, and did you know, you can plant the root end of your onion and they say, it will grow. So, you can always have fresh onions right in your own back yard.

I wanted to say that I did not take these photos. I found them on the Internet.

When I cut onions, I want to get them done as quickly as possible. So, I don't take time to take pictures while I'm cutting them.