The onion. Delicious fried or in a salad or stew. But why, oh why, do they make us cry? It's a big question your kids are bound to ask you. But don't cry. Let's get virtual because it's always important to know your onions.
Here are five things to know:
- Every year, your average American eats around 20 pounds of onions. That's enough to fill about 18,000 school buses. Talk about eye-watering. But why do they do what they do when we slice them? Are they angry at us?
- Onions have a defense mechanism. When they grow underground, they are frequently under attack from critters who try to eat them, and when they do, onions release sulfenic acid and enzymes, which join together to produce a very irritating gas indeed, called propanethial S-oxide.
- When this gas reaches the watery layer of your eyeball, it becomes soluble, turning into sulfuric acid. Aghh! But your eyeballs are also ninjas that fight back, trying to flush it out by making tears, and voila — an onion has made you cry.
- Some onions are stronger than others and some of us are more sensitive too. So how do you stop crying over a cut onion? Fresher onions are less powerful than ones you've been storing for weeks in your fridge, for one thing.
- Chefs recommend chopping away from you and trying not to chop them at the root end — the very end of the onion — as this contains the most amount of irritating acid and enzymes. Or you can do what a friend of mine does and wear swimming goggles while he chops them. Weird but effective!
You could even put them in a blender, which should keep the naughty onion gases away from your eyeballs completely. The onion! There's another big question answered for you. You can thank me later. No need to cry. How'd you like them onions?