How can I keep from crying while chopping an onion?
How can I keep from crying while chopping an onion?
Is it possible to avoid crying when you're chopping an onion? Home remedies range from the unattractive (breathe through your mouth and put carrots up your nose) to the suggestive (light a votive and do it underwater). Most remedies aim to keep the sulfuric acid in onion juice from floating up into your eyes and triggering the tear ducts.
Some eyes are more sensitive to the acid than others. Dipping two halves of an onion in white vinegar will remove some of the sulfuric acid, but doing so may compromise the onion’s flavor. Goggles will keep onion acids out of your eyes and keep you from tearing up. However, goggles will also fog up in a steamy kitchen. (Plus, goggles in the kitchen? Really?)
At Cookthink, we believe it’s all right to cry. Crying means you’ve got a fresh, potent onion on your cutting board.
You might try opening a window or turning on an exhaust fan. Cutting the root end last also seems to cut down on the crying. Or just get in the habit of making onions the last ingredient you prep before cooking, so you don’t have to linger too long in the onion-infused space above your cutting board.
Vidalias and other sweet onions are less likely to make you cry, because they contain more water and less sulfuric acid. So mild that you can bite into one like an apple, the Supasweet onion might make crying while chopping a thing of the past.
Florence fennel, the bulbous variety found in most American stores has a subtle anise (mild licorice) flavor and delicate celery texture. The bulbs are often sold with the feathery fronds lopped off. Get the ones with some fronds attached if you can -- they’re the perfect raw finish to a fennel dish, sprinkled on as a bright green top layer to echo the anise flavor.
You can thinly slice fennel crosswise for sautés, pastas, and salads, or cut it into wedges lengthwise to roast, braise, or gratinee.
First, rinse the bulb and fronds well and pat them dry. Cut off the the stalks close to the bulb.
If you want to remove some of the slightly stringy outer layer, peel bulb with a vegetable peeler.
To slice for salads or quick cooking, just cut across the bulb as thick or thin as you like.
For longer cooking methods like braising and roasting, cut the bulb lengthwise into wedges of any size. Slice through the core, leaving some of it attached to each wedge to help keep the wedges together. The core will become tender with cooking.
If you want to cook wedges briefly, like on a grill, it's best to remove the core. Cut the bulb into wedges lengthwise, then sliced down along the core at an angle. Then just slice the quarters crosswise to any thickness.
Now that you know how to prep fennel, try cooking it - there are lots of fennel recipes at Cookthink.com.
what you should know
In 1850, Seth Lewelling lit out for Oregon to grow fruit. His first success fruit was the Black Republican cherry, which he named in honor of the abolitionists trying to end slavery. (Back in Iowa, the Lewellings had been involved in the Underground Railroad.)
Lewelling named his next cherry after Ah Bing, the foreman who oversaw his orchards. The large, dark red Bing cherry was sweet, plump and crisp.
the pick When it was released in the mid-1870s, it became a sensation: one pound (roughly 35 cherries) sold for a dollar in East Coast markets. The Bing quickly became and still is the most widely grown of the sweet cherries.
tis the Cherries should start arriving right about now from central California (and, with them, "unquestionable proof" that summer is coming). In a couple of weeks, you'll start seeing Bings from Oregon and Washington state, where almost half the sweet cherries in the U.S. are grown.
low risk, high reward The Bing--like all sweet cherries--are low risk/high reward fruits. Look for cherries that are firm and shiny. Avoid soft or bruised fruit. Store cherries in the fridge, where they'll keep for a few days. (You can also freeze cherries.)
pit stop To pit a cherry, treat it like an olive. (Or get out a nail or paper clip.)
what you need
If you go in for those super-specific kitchen tools like the cherry pitter, we recommend the one made by OXO. (It'll also work for most olives.)
As with pitting olives, we get along just fine with a dough scraper.
Chez Panisse Fruit is filled with simple and refined stone fruit desserts.
what you do
Convert someone to spinach with this Bing cherry and Brie salad.
Cook & Eat explores the compatibility between sweet and savory in fruit and honey focaccia and a fennel and cherry salad.
As you enter grilling season in earnest, keep this rustic cherry pie (also from Cook & Eat) in mind.
One of the classic uses for Bings is in a cherry clafoutis, which is part of this week's installment of the Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology.
(Top image courtesy of the California Cherry Advisory Board.)
Fennel is a multi-faceted plant that brings a subtle anise flavor to the table in a number of ways.
Technically an herb, it also provides spice in the form of fennel seed. The pollen of fennel flowers is intense and sweet. The tasty bulb can be eaten raw or cooked. And the fronds make an aromatic garnish.
The same compound that flavors aniseed and star anise also flavors fennel, although not as strongly. The slight licorice flavor is frequently found as an ingredient in Italian sausages.
Elixirs and distillations of fennel have been used for centuries as nerve tonics and digestive aids. Its use as a component of gripe water has helped to ease the colic in babies as a homeopathic remedy.
