Cooking Essentials

Cooking is a lovely skill that many of us lack. Whether you've been surviving on the good will of others or on trashy fast food or yummy takeout, there might be a time in your life when you'll realize that learning how to cook has a number of advantages that can really work in you favor. Learning how to cook will not only liberate you from the closest deli or take out restaurant, but will also give you plenty of knowledge about nutrition and how to better prepare your foods to enjoy the natural flavors fully.

Before you tackle the advanced cooking projects though (we know you want to get to cooking a great and juicy barbecue as fast as possible), its best to build up on your library of basic cooking skills. These things are often overlooked but are the true foundation for the best cuisine and, therefore, you should pay close attention to them and seek to master them because you will be applying them countless times on your cooking career. Today, we will learn how to chop onions without turning your eyes into cascading rivers. Don't worry, once you learn how you'll see even kids out of junior schools could do it.

How to Chop Onions Without Tears

First, why do onions really make you cry? Well, onions are made of an outside layer of outer leaves (that's the brown part), scales (the white and firm part, basically, the edible stuff) and the basal plate (the root.) That being said, onions make you cry because of a simple process:

1. When you cut into the root, an enzyme is released.
2. The enzyme reacts with the rest of the onion and a gas is released.
3. When the gas is combined with water, an acid is created.
4. If that water is in your eye (pro tip: there is water in your eye) then you have acid in your eye. Guess what? Acid in your eye makes you cry.

If you want to cut onions without suffering these acidic consequences, you can try following these tips.

Use a Sharp Knife

Since the enzymes are released when the cells are broken or crushed, using a sharp knife ensures that you're slicing through most of the onion rather than crushing it. By doing that, less enzymes are released and less potential acid is created.

Cut it Right

Since the flesh of the onion is tubular and pointing towards the top and the bottom, you can use this to avoid spraying the acid water into your eyes. Point the tubes away from you while cutting and that will keep them from spraying, however, a breeze of any kind can send this ultra fine mist towards you so keep an eye on air currents.

Chill Man!

If you chill your onions in the freezer before cutting them you reduce the amount of acid enzyme that is released into the air. This is supposedly the best method for avoiding tears, so try chilling your onions and get ready for a crazy BBQ.