TIRED of tears when chopping onions at dinnertime? Scientists have finally come up with a way around it.
An onion-slicing study has revealed the best way to avoid crying while cutting an onion – and it even busted a common myth too.
Chopping onions might bring tears to your eyes – but you can dodge the effect if you’re carefulCredit: Getty
It’s plagued humanity since we first began .
And over the years, there’s been no end of ideas on how to stop the tears.
Now top scientists have probed the to see how they can keep the tears at bay.
“Tear induction during onion cutting has long vexed the culinary community,” said lead author Zixuan Wu, of .
WHY DO ONIONS MAKE US CRY?
No, it’s not because you’re feeling sad about hurting the onion.
What actually causes the tears is a chemical mist of propanethial S-oxide.
It reacts with water when it contacts your eyes, creating a very dilute sulphuric acid that irritates your eye.
And it’s this that causes the burning sensation – and the tears that dilute the irritant in a bid to flush it out.
Scientists used a blade and a hi-res camera that was able to capture very fast movements.
And they used this set-up to track mist droplets that were being released from the onion during the cutting process.
They made several adjustments, including the speed of the chop, the force used to , and varying levels of knife sharpness.
“Using high-speed visuals, we found that an onion does not release tear-triggering fluid in one burst,” Zixuan explained.
“Instead, the blade first punches out a layer of high-speed mist, then slower fluids snap into drops.
“When the blade is blunter and faster, droplet number and launch energy increase sharply.”
Cut with a very sharp knife and move slowly to reduce mist emissionsCredit: Getty
CHEERFUL CHOPPING
This allowed researchers to come up with a simple solution for .
And no, it doesn’t involve leaving the tap running or holding a slice of bread in your mouth.
“The finding explains culinary intuition and suggests a practical fix,” Zixuan said, writing in the journal PNAS.
“Keep knives sharp and cut gently to spray less, with implications for reducing kitchen splashing and preventing the spread of food-borne diseases via droplets and aerosols.”
Don’t bother chilling your onions before cutting them – it won’t make a differenceCredit: Getty
So you just need to make sure to use a very sharp knife, and cut very gently.
This will reduce the mist emissions and hopefully help you avoid a teary chopping session.
So what about the idea of cooling your onions down before you cut into them?
Well it turns out that that the temperature of an onion doesn’t make any difference to the emissions.
So don’t waste time sticking the onions in the fridge. Just do some careful cutting instead.
