Today we go back to the origins, root column, culinary subject. Because I started this piece by talking about cooking tips with a half-scientific approach (inherited from the time I worked at the magazine Superinteressante), half an attempt to dismantle the flabby self-importance that predominates in gastronomy writing.
I just chopped a huge onion and I noticed that my eyes didn’t burn. In fact, it’s very rare for me to cry when I slice onions. More common when I’m sad, less when the harmful gases from the onion invade my cranial cavity.
This happens because the bench where I prepare the ingredients, here at home, is glued to a tilting window that looks out onto the world.
Ventilation is absolutely essential if you don’t want to get intoxicated by cutting onions — and for anything that involves cooking, by the way. We cry when chopping onions because volatile compounds, harmful and disgusting, infest the atmosphere when you break the cells of the vegetable. The wind blows those junk away.
In case good ventilation is impossible in your reality (I’ve been in many kitchens that looked like the anteroom to hell), the solution to not tearing up is in the temperature.
The volatile is less volatile in the cold. Let the onion cool. Place it in the freezer for an hour or two before chopping.
Your life will get better.
You’re welcome. Follow me for more tips at the links below. I’ll come back later to annoy general with matters that have nothing to do with cooking.
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