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A cry for help?
After a TikTok user complained that she weeps “a lot a lot” when chopping onions, an emergency medicine physician shared a tissue-free slicing strategy that he swears is a cut above the rest.
“I’m gonna teach you how to never cry again cutting onions,” Dr. Joe Whittington declared on TikTok this month.
The California-based doc informed his 2.1 million followers that dicing an onion releases sulfur compounds that react with enzymes within the vegetable to form a gas that irritates your eyes, causing them to tear up.
The chemical culprit is propanethial S-oxide — it’s a natural defense mechanism onions use to protect themselves from being eaten by animals.
White, yellow and red onions have higher concentrations of the enzyme needed to produce the volatile compound while sweet onions, green onions and scallions don’t have as much.
To prevent waterworks, Whittington recommends placing a wet paper towel near the onion to act as a “magnet” to absorb the propanethial S-oxide as you slice.
“The moisture attracts the sulfur compounds, helping to prevent irritation, so you’re less likely to shed tears while chopping,” Whittington explained.
This trick has been tested before — with mixed results.
@drjoe_md Cutting onions releases sulfur compounds that form a gas, which irritates your eyes and causes them to tear up. Placing a wet paper towel near the onion absorbs some of these gas particles, reducing the amount that reaches your eyes. The moisture attracts the sulfur compounds, helping to prevent irritation, so you’re less likely to shed tears while chopping. #kitchenhacks #cookingtips #onions #doctor ♬ original sound – Dr. Joe, M.D. 🩺
“I dutifully laid out the paper towel under my onion and chopped it slowly in order to give the onion acid time to sear my eyeballs, or whatever it normally does,” a Kitchn writer penned in 2021. “Nothing happened. No tears, no running out of the kitchen. Nothing.”
Mashed, meanwhile, reports that moving the paper towel “even an inch away” from the onion may make the cloth useless.
Other sob-less suggestions include freezing the onion beforehand, keeping the root intact, placing a fan next to the cutting board, using a super-sharp knife as you cut fast and donning protective eyewear.
Or you could try Sunions, naturally bred “tearless” onions.
