In many dishes, onions are one of the ingredients. Depending on the recipe and the method of preparation, it is cut in various ways. Precautions should be taken when slicing, as this procedure causes profuse lacrimation and pain in the eyes. From the article you will learn how to properly chop onions to reduce discomfort.
What you need to know before cutting onions?
Onion is a very healthy vegetable that has a rich vitamin and mineral composition. However, if it is cut raw with a knife, it irritates the mucous membrane of the eye, causing tearing and pain. This happens because the cells of the vegetable contain amino acids that contain substances such as sulfoxides and enzymes.
When the cell membrane is damaged, amino acids are released and, mixed with enzymes, are first converted to 1-propanesulfonic acid, and then to the volatile compound 1-sulfinyl propane, which in turn enters the mucous membrane of the eye and, when combined with tear fluid, forms sulfuric acid. It is this substance that leads to irritation of the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, pains and lacrimation.
Did you know? Man began to grow onions for food 5–6 thousand years ago, presumably in India and China. For the first time, the plant is mentioned in the writings of Herodotus and on the ancient cookbooks in the form of tablets. Images of the vegetable are placed on the walls of the tomb of Tutankhamun (1352 BC).
Precautionary measures
For thousands of years of using onions in cooking and the experience of slicing onions, people have been looking for ways to not suffer while chopping vegetables with a knife at home. As a result, about 20 ways of slicing the bulb were found, in which tears do not stand out.
Two of them are most widely known and are used by many culinary specialists. The first is that after peeling the bulb, put it in cold or warm salted water for 20 minutes. The tear-causing substance will dissolve in the liquid before the vegetable is cut.
The second method involves frequent wetting of the knife in water directly during cutting. The released sulfuric acid will be washed off with water and will not have time to affect the mucous membrane.
Precautions:
- Cut in the open air or near an open window in the warm season.
- Place the peeled onion in the refrigerator before shredding for 15–20 minutes.
- Cut the vegetable near a burning candle, in the flame of which sulfuric acid fumes will be burned.
- Pour a thin layer of salt on a chopping board and chop on it. Salt absorbs irritants. This method is suitable for preparing the onion for cooking using salt.
- Wipe the knife and the board with lemon juice, which also neutralizes substances that irritate the mucous membranes of the eye and nose.
- Scalp the bulb after cleaning.
- Shred by typing water in the mouth.
- Cut when the hood or fan is on.
- Work with a vegetable in a gauze bandage and special glasses.
Important! The predominant amount of valuable compounds is contained in the upper layer of onions, so you need to peel it carefully, removing only the upper skin. When removing one juicy layer, up to 1/3 of useful elements are lost.
Onion slicing methods
Depending on which dish is being prepared, the recipe indicates the recommendation in which form you want to chop the onions - into cubes, rings, half rings, straws, slices. Let's take a step-by-step look at chopping onions in various forms.
Straws
To get a beautiful and even straw, you should:
- Cut the onion head in half.
- Place one half on a cutting board with the flat part down.
- Make thin cuts along the length.
- When a small piece remains, it should also be cut into thin strips.
- Cut the second half of the onion in the same way.
Sliced or Diced
If the recipe contains a recommendation for slicing the vegetable into cubes, proceed as follows:
- Cut the onion head in half.
- First, take one half, lay it with a slit down and make incisions along a width of 3-4 mm, not reaching a few millimeters to the root zone. So the half will not fall apart.
- Then it is necessary to make horizontal incisions, leaving a few millimeters from the end.
- Make cuts perpendicular to the longitudinal, cutting small cubes.
- If the cuts are made wider, then rectangular slices will be obtained.
Did you know? One of the inscriptions found in the Egyptian pyramid of Cheops says that they gave onions to the slaves who built it in order to prevent the development of epidemics.
Such cutting is most often needed for salads, minced meat, sauces.
When pickling and preserving, large segments are often required. To get them, you need to cut a small head with not cut bottoms into 4 parts. Pieces cut in such a way in the banks will not disintegrate.
Video: Dice onion
Rings and half rings
To quickly chop onions in half rings, you must:
- Cut the cleaned head into halves.
- Place one half on the cutting board with the cut down.
- Cut thin slices to width.
- A vegetable sliced in this way is necessary, for example, for cabbage soup, borsch, soups with noodles and pasta, stewed vegetables, pilaf, marinade.
Rings are cut into vegetables for marinating kebabs, decorating herring dishes or for deep-frying.
To carry out such cutting, you must:
- On one side of the peeled bulb, make a small incision.
- Place it on a cutting board with a notch down.
- Cut thin rings 1-3 mm wide.
- Rings to separate.
For frying
For frying, cubes are often used. If the fried onion is needed for decoration, it is cut into rings or half rings.
Also, for frying, you can chop the heads with thin strips:
- Cut lengthwise into 3 parts.
- Cut across thin strips.
How to chop chopped onion?
Non-professionals in the culinary business are often surprised by the skill and speed with which venerable chefs can chop onion heads and other vegetables. Chives are needed for salads, soups and sauces.
To finely chop a vegetable, you need:
- Cut it in half. The cut line should be perpendicular to the base of the head.
- Cut the onion vertically into thin slices, not reaching a few millimeters to the base.
- Make horizontal cuts, also not reaching the bottom.
- Having captured all the layers with your fingers, make vertical thin cuts of the same thickness.
- Additionally grind the resulting cubes.
Video: How to cut onions properly
Culinary Tips
To hone their onion slicing skills, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the advice of experienced chefs:
- The knife must be held between the thumb and forefinger.
- Work should only be done with a well-sharpened tool.
- When cutting straws, depending on how it is produced - along the growth of fibers or across, you can achieve different tastes of onions and dishes. So, with cross cutting, onion taste is more pronounced, with longitudinal - softer.
- To make the straw look neat, its thickness should be from 3 to 6 mm.
- To reduce the sharpness of the vegetable after chopping, it must be placed in a colander and lowered for several seconds in hot water. After that, you need to immediately put it in the cooking dish.
- To fry the chopped vegetable evenly, you need to cut it into equal-sized pieces.
- It is better to peel the onion, cut into halves, than a whole. So the process is faster and easier.
- When slicing green onions, do not cut off the entire white part with the roots.
Important! The heads must be cut immediately before the heat treatment, since the vegetable quickly fades and loses some of the valuable substances.
So, we examined a lot of ways how not to cry when slicing onions, as well as how to chop it in various forms for cooking. We hope that now the cooking process will become easier, faster and will bring you only pleasure.