Comments on: Dietribes: Peeling the Onion

By: Reggie

Reggie — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:14:16 +0000

This is weird, but the only onions I like are on White Castle sandwiches. Does anybody know what kind they are?

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:25:37 +0000

Cute story…my 3-year-old niece likes to help cook, so she was cutting up an onion (with a butter knife), and it was making her eyes sting & tear up. But since she didn’t know onions do that & wasn’t expecting it, she didn’t know what was causing it. She wiped her eyes a few times with her sleeve, and then in frustration said, “What’s wrong with my eyes?” It was so adorable!

By: Tdave

Tdave — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:20:19 +0000

I put my little electric fan on the countertop, and aim the stream of air over the cutting board. The vapors get blown to the left, instead of going up to my face.

By: Jess

Jess — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:42:46 +0000

Once when I was about 3 years old, my dad and I were at home waiting for my mom to come home from work so we could go grocery shopping. There was no food in the house, and I kept whining about wanting something to eat. The only thing in the pantry was a potato and some onions, and I asked my dad if I could eat the onion (I probably thought it closely resembled an apple, whereas the potato was all dirty and lumpy). My dad suggested that I might want to eat the potato instead, but I threw a fit, insisting that the onion would make a better snack. Getting tired of my screaming and crying, he finally let me have the onion. Shut me up reaaaal quick.
For the longest time, I couldn’t eat any kind of onion, cooked or raw. 20 years later I can now eat cooked onions, but raw onions still make me gag. Thanks daddy!

By: n2y2

n2y2 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:10:46 +0000

I get severe eye pain (much more than others I know) if I do not do the following:

1) Use an extremely sharp knife – Dull knives crush more cell walls thereby releasing more vapors.

2) Keep an open-flame candle right next to the workspace. Note: a jar-style (i.e. Yankee) scent candle will not work; the flame must be exposed.

Alternately, you can fill your kitchen sink with cold water and cut the bulb under water, but I always feel like I am washing away the flavorful oils when I do this.

By: S

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:34:02 +0000

I love onions. I’ll eat them in salads, on top of burgers (a soy burger topped with ketchup, onions, and hot peppers is a truly wonderful thing), or just by themselves. I will not, however, eat a cooked onion. They still taste okay, I guess, but the texture is absolutely disgusting.

By: bre

bre — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:46:32 +0000

I’ve always loved onions…fried, raw, roasted…it doesn’t matter.

I’ve heard that having a candle burning next to your cutting surface helps get rid of some of the fumes. I usually have a candle burning in the kitchen, anyway, so this isn’t too much trouble. I’m not really sure if it helps or not.

Also, to get rid of the onion smell on your hands, rub a stainless steel spoon on your hands under cool running water. It seriously works to neutralize the odor. I actually bought a stainless steel bar of “soap” specifically made for this purpose.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:30:32 +0000

I love onions. I always have. There is family lore on how as a small tot I would bite into whole raw onions.

The most comforting smell to me, the one I most associate with home and family is the smell of frying onions.

By: Brittany

Brittany — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:32:18 +0000

I am obsessed with Take Home Chef and Curtis Stone always says your eyes well up if the knife is too dull so use a good sharp knife and it should help.
Don’t know about that yet as all my knives are cheapies.

By: Florida

Florida — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:06:38 +0000

Considering your eyes tear through a chemical reaction between the volatile gases of the onion and the water on the surface of your eye it is logically impossible that having something in your mouth while cutting an onion would prevent this reaction from occurring. Any success with this method sounds more like a self-fulfilling prophecy than an actual remedy.

As for me, I follow the old adage: “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen”