Can you dice an onion before you cry?
You probably won’t beat the tears the first time you try. Just like any other skill, you need practice. I got mine at the local rescue mission. A little instruction, sixteen onions and LOTS of tears later, I could fly through the dicing!
One crazy tip for less crying while dicing your onion
To get that practice in and not hate me (hahaha), here’s a little secret. I honestly don’t remember how I learned this, but it works for most folks. (If I learned it from someone, I’d sure like to give that friend, blogger, or whoever the credit and a BIG HUG!!! If I stumbled on it myself, YAY!) Keep some fruit sours or strong mints in your kitchen, and pop one in your mouth before you cut into your onion. Yep, that’s it! Maybe it’s distraction that makes it work? At any rate, for most people, it will keep the tears at bay longer while you’re honing your skill.
At a recent cooking class, a friend admitted she didn’t believe me when I brought those out, but in the end, it really worked. She went home to show her two girls, both of whom were really skeptical. To their surprise, it worked for them, too.
Now…how to dice that onion
Rinse your onion, then cut off the stem end with your chef knife (this is the bigger knife with the curved cutting edge). This end of the onion is more “papery” and cleaner than the root end. Rinse that cut edge with cold water. It’s a good idea to do this for all the big cuts as it keeps the enzymes that cause the tears at bay (click here for the full “sciency” version of what happens when you cut that onion).
Set your onion down flat on the cut end on your cutting board, and slice the onion in half…right through the root end (you’ll see the littlest roots sticking out of it). Rinse those cut edges again. Now you need to pull away the “papery” outside layers of the onion. You can pull them all the way off or fold them back to make a handle if you want.
At this point you could simply slice along the outside edge (parallel to that first cut) to make half rings (if that’s what you want). Or you could do fan cuts (as shown) first, making sure not to cut through the root end, and then it will dice as you slice! Do as many fan cuts as you want; the more you do, the smaller your pieces will be. Slice only as far as your fan cuts go, then just toss the root.
Practice till you “beat” the tears
No need to punish yourself with 16 onions like I did. Set a goal to cut 3 onions in a row (with your sours or mints to assist). Do that 2 or 3 times, and soon you’ll be able to dice that onion before you cry! What are you gonna do with all those practice onions? Freeze ‘em so when you need one for a fast recipe, it’s already done!
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