Edit: Swim goggles should work too if you don’t have to worry about glasses.
I know this will be obvious to some, but I’ve never seen anyone in my family wear them. It’s so obvious once you think about it, and yet I’d wager most people (especially ones who don’t cook as a hobby) have never tried this.
The reason you cry is because slicing onions produces an organosulfur called syn-Propanethial-S-oxide. Lab goggles – as designed – keep the chemical irritant from reaching your eyes. I’ve used them hundreds of times now, and I think there was one time it got into my eyes when I didn’t have the goggles situated right (not difficult; I was just being a moron).
My 3M anti-fog pair were about $5 USD when I got them, and it looks like they’re about $7.50 USD now. For that price, I never have to dread cutting up onions again. It’s not magic; it’s just basic PPE, and it works. You can even wear them over eyeglasses (I’m sure some huge, circular frames won’t fit, but most should).
Even if you forget them and remember them midway through slicing, it can still help somewhat. So even if you’re as absent-minded as I am, you can benefit from trying this.
These (below) were the ones I got personally, but feel free to try what you already have if you already have a pair on-hand for e.g. cleaning. I’d assume the important thing is just that they’re goggles, not glasses.
Why YSK: owie, oof, ouchie, my eyes. Cooking is just DIY organic chemistry.
Use a sharp knife because a duller knife is less safe, and it does more smashing than cutting which casues more fumes.
Don’t put your head over the onions as you work. Take a half step back and extend your arms more so you’re further away from the fumes.
If your kitchen is not well ventilated, put your cutting board on the stove and turn on the hood.
Don’t cut the root off either. Use it to hold the onion together and in my experience also seems to lessen the effect on my eyes.
This is true. (re: droplets; study also rejects the popular chilling method). People in my experience don’t understand how much safer a sharp knife is until you put one in their hands and get them to just try it.
Otherwise, though, the “fume hood” approach seems extremely excessive when a cheap, comfortable, unobstructive pair of goggles is likely to work more consistently and with less thought. I merrily chop with my cutting board wherever I want and standing however I want.
A sharp knife is something you should be using regardless, but these other methods like meticulous posture, fume hoods, pre-soaking, etc. all seem more convoluted and varying degrees of less effective than grabbing some goggles from a drawer and putting them on your face.
How soft do you have to be to cry over cutting an onion? Like, they can’t even feel it so just chill.
We vegans kind of slide everything over, so slaughtering animals becomes unthinkable, and butchering vegetables becomes sad.
You know what? If that carrot were in the wild, it’d be way worse off. Imagine being gnawed on for hours by a rabbit; I’m giving it a quick, painless™ death. You moralizing nihilivores are obnoxious.
THINK OF THE POOR BABY CARROT!!! 🥕
[insert modified justification from Vegan Bingo here]
“Onions make me sad, a lot of people don’t realize that. When I’m cutting onions, I’m sad. Because the plight of onions, it’s sad. But people don’t realize I’m actually crying - they think I’m just reacting.”
Mitch Hedberg
I don’t consider onion tears a problem. It’s an experience I would not want removed from my life, as it is one of those things letting me feel the nuance of being alive.
Red onions bring the most tears here, and yellow the least. I never notice yellow being an issuez but reds will make me take a step back sometimes to blot my eyes with something lol
I can’t relate to that dread part at all. If I knew it was harmful to my eyes I would reconsider this stance, but otherwise, yeah, I’m glad for the pain it causes.
I feel plenty alive wearing swimming goggles in my kitchen.
A Metal Gear villain in the making.
It’s a bit like overdoing wasabi, I don’t really do it deliberately and don’t particularly enjoy it in the moment, but it makes me feel very alive!
Cold buddha shivers, hot buddha sweats, onion-chopping buddha cries 🧘♀️
Keeping your knives wicked sharp also helps a lot.
You could also sharpen your knives and cut them properly.
Tried this with a pair of swim goggles once. Worked with the onions, but got clowned so hard by my roommates I cried anyway 😭
Then all of a sudden your goggles are filled with tears.
I just refrigerate my onions and don’t seem to have any issues.
Sharpening your knife will help, too. Crushing the onion with your chef’s spoon releases way more of the cry gas.
No need for a sharp knife, just don’t breathe with you nose (or don’t breathe at all while cutting).
Or a small fan to blow/suck it away from you
yep. I just blow it into the living or dining room. easier for half a dozen people to deal with it than just myself
Literally never had that happen. And it’s often more than half a dozen people in the room the fan faces. Concentration of it is too diluted by the air from the fan or something. Not sure why it doesn’t have the effect but I’ve never had a problem in that regard.
Seems like it might make sense but is not my experience, anecdotal evidence being what it is
Tried it before. It still didn’t stop me from crying like watching the end of Gattaca. Must’ve been a bad seal somewhere.
The difference when I’m wearing my contact lenses to when I’m wearing glasses is crazy. With my contacts in, onions barely bother me at all. Glasses on the other hand and I have to step back and take a breather.
Cut vertically (with the veins). You basically get no stinging that way (until you start cutting horizontally)
Funny enough, I learned this from Pokémon Journeys of all things.
Source: The episode where Goh catches Sobble, Ash and Goh remember Mimey wearing goggles while cutting onions, which is how they manage to stop Team Rocket from capturing it.
