No more tears about onions

1 servings

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Directions

To avoid a tearful scene while chopping onions, hold a slice of bread lightly between your front teeth. You will look silly, and you will also be forced to breat through your mouth, thus avoiding the inhalation of onion fumes through your nose. It is here that these fumes trigger the reaction that starts the flow of tears. Some old cookbooks suggest holding a matchstick or a toothpick between your front teeth for the same reason, but it's easier to forget and close your mouth over one of these than over a slice of bread. Of course, you could just remember to breather through your mouth.

According to a newer theory, tears over onions are cause by vapors that turn to acid on contact with the eye's surface. Only one protection works - a diver's mask, which, unlike other goggles, has no ventilation holes. I fyou think you look silly with bread clenched in your teeth, try cooking in a snorkel mask. The good news is that after multiple exposures you build up a tolerance, which suggests that real cooks don't cry (except over spilled milk) Another method useful if you are simply peeling the onion is to work under cool running waer, which washes the juice and the fumes away before they can rise to meet your nose or eyes. This also helps keep the juice form soaking into your hands and causing them to smell like onion for hours afterward. A third method of preventing tears while preparing onions requires a little prior planning. Keep a few onions in the refrigerator, replacing them as used. A well chilled onion does not emit fumes into the air while it is being chopped. If you do get weepy and have lots more chopping to do, try this trick. Quikcly walk to another part of the kitchen and sniff something strong - brandy, mustard, perfume, laundry soap etc... If you give your nose a new job ~ smelling a completely different thing and telling your brain about it - it will immediately forget about the onion fumes. Origin: Old Farmer's Almanac, Hearth and Home Companion for 1995. Shared by: Sharon Stevens, Nov/94.

Submitted By SHARON STEVENS On 11-02-94

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