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Visitors tips How to prevent watery eyes while cutting an onion

Submitted by noor jehan kamran

If you suffer with water eyes when cutting an onion here are 3 things that you can try to prevent it:

Put one small piece of onion behind your ears, or

Soak the onions for 1 hour in water at room temp, or

Put a bowl of salt near your chopping board.

Visitors comments

more ways to avoid tears from onions Comments By: Diane B. on 2005-03-07

Refrigerating onions cools them enough to slow down the chemical reaction which causes eyes to sting and tear. Some onions can't be completely tamed this way though, and it's hard to tell which ones.

Learn to chop onions as quickly as possible (cut in half across stem ends, cut a bit from non-stem end of one half, and peel back brown skin, make cuts with end of knife from cut end *almost* to root end, then cut across in "slices."

If you really have trouble with onions, of if you have to chop a lot of them at one time, buy a small pair of swim goggles (the type with 2 eyes), and keep them handy in a drawer for use with onions.