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.
The word sauté actually comes from the French sauter, “to jump”. The jumping describes the constant motion of the food in the pan, which is caused by constant stirring and/or shaking the pan.
Sautéing usually requires only a small amount of oil (or butter) in a very hot pan, an environment in which keeping things moving is a top priority. (James Beard called sautéing a "fast, deft procedure.")
Though it's possible to sauté in just about any type of pan, the true sauté pan is wide and usually a couple of inches deep, with straight sides. Sauté pans are made pretty large to prevent the food from overcrowding, which can lead to too much moisture staying in the pan. If there is too much food in the pan, the moisture released will start to create steam, which interacts with the oil and leads to sticking.
What does it mean to French a rack of lamb?
What does it mean to French a rack of lamb?
To "French" a rack of lamb means to clean meat, cartilage and fat between the tips of the rib bones to make for a neater presentation. It also makes the rack a little easier to cut apart into chops and serve when fully cooked.
We like to leave Frenching to the expert hands of our butcher, but you can try it yourself with a very sharp knife.
