If cutting an onion routinely ends with you standing over the cutting board looking like you’ve just been told the bar is out of Veuve Champagne minutes after an insane breakup, good news: there are actually ways to make it stop.;)

And The Impatient Kitchen’s favorite requires no goggles, special gadgets or chopping an onion with a piece of bread hanging out of your mouth!

Put the onion in the refrigerator before you cut it!

That’s it!

There are approximately nine million onion hacks floating around the internet, ranging from legitimately useful to things that make you look like you’ve suffered some sort of kitchen-related breakdown. Here’s what actually helps, why onions make you cry in the first place and which tricks aren’t worth rearranging your life over.

Why Do Onions Make You Cry?

Because onions fight back UFC-style.;)

More scientifically, cutting into an onion breaks open its cells and sets off a chemical reaction that creates a volatile irritant called syn-propanethial-S-oxide. That irritant floats through the air, reaches your eyes and annoys them enough that your tear glands immediately start trying to flush it away.

So technically you’re not crying…Your eyeballs are just aggressively rinsing themselves.;)

The Best Trick: Refrigerate Your Onion Before Cutting It

This is The Impatient Kitchen’s FAVORITE method because it works AND requires almost no effort.;)

Put your onion in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before you need to chop it. If you routinely cook with onions, you can also just keep a couple in the refrigerator so they’re ready to go.

Cooling the onion slows down the formation and release of the volatile compounds responsible for irritating your eyes. Translation: less onion nonsense-fumes makes it from the cutting board to your eyeballs.😉

You don’t need to freeze the onion solid or treat it like you’re temperature-testing meat mid-grill…. Just get it nice and cold before chopping.

And Voilà! You’re ready to chop!

Other Onion Hacks

Use a Really Sharp Knife

This one also makes sense.

A dull knife crushes and damages more onion cells as you cut, which means you’re potentially releasing more of the compounds you’re trying to avoid.

A sharp knife slices more cleanly through the onion.

Plus, using a sharp knife keeps you from angrily sawing through an onion with something that has the cutting ability of a butter knife;)

Turn On Your Vent Hood

Remember, our entire goal is to keep the onion fumes from reaching your eyes.

So move the air like a boss!

Turn on the vent hood over your stove and chop nearby, or position a small fan so it’s blowing across your cutting board and away from your face.

It’s not particularly glamorous, but neither is blindly chopping vegetables while mascara runs down your cheeks.

Leave the Root End Alone Until the End

You’ll often hear that most of the tear-producing compounds are concentrated around the root and that leaving it intact will completely solve your problem.

That might be a bit of an overreach, but leaving the root attached while you make your initial cuts does have another advantage: it holds the onion together, which makes dicing easier.

So leave it attached while you slice, chop the onion and cut off the root end last.

Even if it doesn’t magically eliminate every tear, your onion behaves itself considerably better on the cutting board.

Wear Goggles

Does this work?

Yep. Because within The Impatient Kitchen knife drawer there absolutely is a pair of swim goggles that work as well at protecting they eyes as they do at removing dignity while wearing them! 😉

If the irritating compounds can’t reach your eyes, they can’t irritate them…

But if you’re cutting a mountain of onions for a massive batch of French onion soup, Thanksgiving stuffing or some other recipe apparently designed to test your emotional resilience, goggles are an extremely effective nuclear option!!

You will look ridiculous… but you will also be victorious.;)

What About Cutting Onions Under Running Water?

Water can help keep some of the irritating compounds from reaching you.

Unfortunately, cutting an onion underneath running water is also an excellent way to turn the extremely basic task of chopping an onion into an aquatic sporting event that leaves participants feeling conflicted..

Just toss them in the fridge and spare yourself the insanity. 😉

What About Bread in Your Mouth?

This hack claims that holding a piece of bread in your mouth while chopping somehow catches or absorbs the irritating onion compounds before they reach your eyes.

Some people swear it works…but The Impatient Kitchen would rather stick with the refrigerator hack and use the bread for dinner!

What About Freezing the Onion?

Cold helps, so you might reasonably think colder = better.

Not necessarily..

You don’t need to freeze your onion to get the benefit, and freezing can start affecting the onion’s texture. (think mushy, confused onion particles..)

Thirty-ish minutes in the refrigerator gives us what we want without turning dinner prep into onion cryogenics Austin-Powers type experiment!

The Impatient Kitchen Verdict

If you want to cut onions without crying, don’t make this complicated: Refrigerate the onion for about 30 minutes before cutting it.

Then use a sharp knife and chop away!

If you’re cutting a LOT of onions, turn on your vent hood or get some airflow moving away from your face.

And if you’re particularly sensitive to onions and none of that cuts it, break out the goggles.

Yes, you’ll look insane… but we guarantee that it’ll make you laugh while making dinner!

And now that you’ve conquered the onion, put your newfound powers to good use with our French Onion Chicken, where you’ll need two entire onions and will therefore be extremely grateful you read this first.

Or try our One Pot French Onion Pasta for another perfectly reasonable excuse to caramelize an irresponsible quantity of onions.

And if you want to add an epic richness to your dish.. caramelized onions turn everyday meals into restaurant-level comfort food!