Who Has Never Cries When Cutting Onions??

Why do onions make you cry?

It is not the strong odor of the onion that makes us cry, but the gas that the onion releases when we sever this member of the lily family.

Onions are known for their ability to reduce cooks to tears, and for the remarkable way in which their aroma is transformed during frying. Sulphur chemicals are responsible in both cases. The onion itself contains oil, which contains sulfur, an irritant to both our noses and to our eyes. Cutting an onion arouses a gas contained within the onion, propanethiol S-oxide, which then couples with the enzymes in the onion to emit a passive sulfur compound. When this upwardly mobile gas encounters the water produced by the tear ducts in our eyelids, it produces sulfuric acid.

These sulfured compounds react with the moisture in your eyes forming sulfuric acid, which produces a burning sensation. The nerve endings in your eyes are very sensitive and so they pick up on this irritation.

An automatic reaction many people show is to rub their eyes with their hands, which often makes the situation worse, because our hands are covered with the sulfur compounds from cutting the onion, which we then rub directly into our eyes.

Tricks to make onion-dicing less problematic:

The only remedy for this problem is to boil the onion, not to slice it or cut it up, which is not very practical. Some people suggest putting the onion in the fridge or the freezer for a few minutes because the cold decreases the speed of the chemical reaction. Another tip is to slice the area around the root of the onion last. Why? Because there are more sulfur compounds in the onion root.

Sulfuric acid irritates the eyes. In response to this acid, our eyes automatically blink, and produce tears which wash the eye and flush out the acid.