Chopping an Onion in 4 Simple Steps
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Dipping your knife under the faucet with the cold water running. Every cut, dip your knife. Or else rinse your onion under cold water. Both of these methods work for me every time.
I keep a glass of water nearby, and when my eyes start to water, I take a drink of the water and it goes away. Also, if you rub your hands on your stainless steel faucet the onion smell on your hands goes away.
I have found out / discovered that when I cut the skin after removing the ends, and start to peel off the outer layer exposing the flimsy skin membrane then the onion fumes are released from the onion causing the eyes being affected.
After the skin is removed and handling just the bare onion, no more fumes. But getting to that point people looking at me would say I was hurting from being hit with a hammer, no dry eyes.
I still do the same thing and cry.
I agree - trim the root and neck end first. I cut a simply upside-down funnel-shape cutout.
Then when slicing: When slicing in step #3 - Make your final few cuts at the end in a manner that angles toward the center of the onion. This results in more evenly sized chopped pieced.
My Aunt insisted that when you chopped the root end of the onion it caused the tearing up. She advised to always start with the other end and to go quickly when cutting near the root end. She also advised disposing of the root end as soon as they were cut off to prevent fumes. I used to have problems with tearing before her advice and not since. That was close to 40 years ago. If you cut it like the video posted here and ensure the root is the last attached part and then throwing away the root right away, it works perfectly.
If you're very susceptible to tearing while chopping onions, try this. . .
Hold a piece of slightly stale bread between your lips and chop-away, no-more-tears !
I bought a pair of swim goggles to wear just for cutting onions. Works great and embarrasses my kids as an added bonus!
It certainly works! I've done this for years, why not? 😁
I also remember a chemistry professor saying that if you used a stainless steel knife or touched a stainless steel surface when cutting an onion that would keep you from tearing up. I cannot say for sure that this works as he would toss out some really wild things regarding the chemistry of food. I will say I do have a stainless steel knife that I use for cutting onions and I do not shed any tears.
You will want to leave the root section on the onion as it will allow the "leftovers" to last longer in the fridge. Just for fun when my kid was little, when we got down to the root section, we put it in water to root it, then planted it. My kid loved that he "cloned" onions. He was really into gardening. We put the first "clone" into a glass jar so he could see the onion grow better.
My friend in Belgium would boil veggie "leftovers" that were not used in dishes to make a veggie broth.