When cooking in the kitchen, we often reach for onions. However, cutting it is not always pleasant because it often causes uncontrollable tears and stinging in the eyes. However, this is the body’s natural reaction to the chemicals released during cutting. Nevertheless, we can solve it in a simple way.
If you want to reduce tearing when cutting onions, it is worth trying a method that, although it sounds like a home trick from years gone by, is really effective and has a scientific justification. We’re talking about lighting a candle while cutting an onion. All you need to do is light a small candle and place it nearby before chopping.
This will be extremely helpful because the flame heats and burns some of the volatile compounds released from the onion. They float in the air when we cut them and irritate our eyes. However, if we light a candle, it creates a small stream of warm air around itself, which sucks in and burns some of the penetrating particles before they reach our eyes. Thanks to this, there will not be too many of them floating in the air, and our tearing reaction will significantly weaken.
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If you don’t have a candle at hand, you can use other home remedies to minimize tears when cutting onions. One of the most popular tricks is to cool the onion in the fridge or freezer for several minutes before cutting. Low temperature will slow down the release of enzymes responsible for the formation of irritating gas, so there will be much less of it in the air.
It will also be a good idea turning on the kitchen hood at the highest speed. It will suck in the emerging vapors before they spread around the room. We can also chop the onion, positioning themselves close to the cold stream from the tap. Thanks to this, some of the volatile compounds will dissolve in the water before they reach the face.
Some people also use an interesting method of chewing gum while cutting. This makes us breathe through our mouths, which, according to some chefs, changes the direction of air flow and reduces eye irritation. The next trick is this Immediately after cutting the onion in half, place the cut side on a board to minimize the contact of released compounds with the air.
