No more onion tears: The only hack I’ve tried that actually works

Finally, I can put away my goggles for good, writes HOLLY GERRARD after discovering the best way to avoid crying when cutting onions.

Holly Gerrard

3 min read

January 25, 2024 - 12:00AM

Food

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Everyone has that one task they dread doing in the kitchen…

For me, it’s chopping onions and I know I’m not alone.

While cutting onions, I look like I’m grieving – and this is no exaggeration.

I have always despised chopping onions because I’ve never managed to do it without crying. I often have to emotionally work myself up to make the first slice. My housemates will overhear me muttering to myself, “you’ve got this, it’s just an onion,” as I stand in my kitchen, staring at my vegetable nemesis.

And yet, could I really call myself a lover of cooking if I refuse to include onions in my meals just because they have a vendetta against my eyes? Probably not. So I persist – bravely struggling through this task – desperately trying every onion cutting hack I can find. In fact, I used to wear a pair of goggles while helping my mum with dinner prep!

Onion tears are no laughing matter.

Wearing goggles definitely helped, but I can’t risk wearing them as I cook now – for fear my housemates may snap a particularly unattractive photo of me and immortalise my desperate attempts to protect my sensitive eyes.

But, there’s good news: relief has arrived. I’ve now found a solution that will keep my eyes dry and my housemates’ camera rolls remain goggle-free:

Damp paper towel.

The hack of a lifetime

That’s right, a damp cloth is all it took. I had been cooking an Italian sausage ragu with my friend and as we were preparing our ingredients, I sheepishly turned to her and asked if she would cut the onion for me because I didn’t want to start crying (or have to put on the goggles). Immediately, her eyes lit up:

“I have a hack! Do you have some paper towels?”

Why do onions make us cry?

To understand why a damp cloth works so well, we first need to understand why onions can bring us to tears so quickly.

As soon as we cut through an onion, the cells release a mist of enzymes into the air, which irritates our eyes! It’s been suggested that the water in your tear ducts is more susceptible to these enzymes, so it can help to divert the enzymes by creating another ‘wet’ source.

It’s important to note that this hack isn’t backed by science, but I’ll give anything a go if it means I’m not sobbing in the kitchen when preparing my aromatics.

”I have a hack! Do you have some paper towels?”

I put this hack to the test

To see if I had truly found a solution to my problems, I decided to create my own scientific experiment in our work kitchen. First, I chopped an onion without a damp paper towel. Then, I let my tears dry (enduring some laughs from my camerawoman, our Content and Social Producer Georgia Mahood) and tried again, but using the paper towel hack.

I was chuffed with these results and immediately shared them with the team only to find out our Digital Editor, Rebecca Nittolo, had also tried a matchstick hack over on Hunger Hacks. I’m keen to try out this hack as well, although holding a matchstick in my mouth while I chop onions could leave room for some sneaky housemate photos for me!

Still a sceptic? Give these hacks a go and experience dry-eyed onion chopping for yourself.