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TikTok trend shares how to use paper towel to stop onions from making you cry
Wait...it's really that easy?!
Luis Gaskell
03.24.21

Corned beef, burgers, steaks and salads are never not a delight. That savory taste benefits quite a bit from the onions that are always paired with them, but someone’s got to prepare those onions first.

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Easier said than done, as is usually the case!

No one needs to be told that chopping onions is the last thing your eyes signed up for. Although your prime steak, beef or rice dish might get an extra layer of taste to it, your eyes will sting and water like crazy.

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Pixabay

But those servings of corned beef and steak aren’t topping themselves. Better just suck it up and get to chopping those onions. This common kitchen experience is so well-known that “Chopping onions”

If only there was some way to do that without your tear ducts going off like an ambulance siren.

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Pixabay

Well, guess what? There is!

This hack comes from Tiktok, sharing its publishing space with countless other videos detailing life hacks, recipes, tutorials, dances, and everything else on there.

Onions irritate your eyes with a chemical called Syn-Propanethial-S-oxide (don’t worry, you probably won’t need to remember that name for any reason after this). When it’s released from the onions, it mixes with the air and goes (usually) straight to our eyes, specifically in the lachrymal ducts.

Then the waterworks start while you’re just preparing dinner.

@mealswithmax

Little Onion Tip! 🧅 #maxskitchenhacks #onion #foodhack #kitchentip

♬ How Bizarre – OMC

The idea behind this trick is to take a paper towel and set it down on the chopping board, right below the onions (but obviously, not touching the onions!). Those tear-inducing chemicals from the onions will be attracted and soaked up there instead.

Now you can prepare some onion recipes without looking like a teenager who just listened to Adele’s 21 album for the first time.

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Pixabay

As a kitchen connoisseur, this TikTok user goes the same route as everyone who loves to spend time in the kitchen. They experimented and looked around for solutions.

Who knew how much power a small, wet towel had?

This isn’t the only method that works either. A good few more solutions exist, and they all also use moisture at their core. For instance, chilling the onions before chopping them tends to work too. With those cells all cold, the tear-inducing chemicals can’t escape as easily.

Submerging the onion in water while you dice it up does the trick too. Anything to get those chemicals from releasing into the air. So get some bowls and tap water if you’re preparing an onion dish soon!

Though if you’re worried about getting the onion too wet, the TikTok’s towel method is still the best one. It’s probably not as messy too!

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Pixabay

Water the odds that this would work so well, right? I’ll let myself out.

Last but not least, using a particularly sharp knife can get the job done too. That Syn-Propanethial-S-oxide gets released when the onion’s cells and structure are all crushed up with force. Using a clean, efficient, and sharp blade to cut it up before it can do anything should work!

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Pixabay

Sorry to those of you who are just discovering these tricks. I’m sure you’ve had to endure years and years of onion tears, never thinking that there was some other way. That, or you’ve had to wear goggles in the kitchen like some mad scientist.

I at least hope you enjoyed all the things you put those onions in.

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Source:
Pixabay

Though now, onion rings, cream of onion soup, steak with onions, and corned beef with onions should be a whole lot less painful to prepare.

Give the TikTok a watch below, and please share the article so you could save some of your friends the trouble of chopping onions!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

@mealswithmax

Little Onion Tip! 🧅 #maxskitchenhacks #onion #foodhack #kitchentip

♬ How Bizarre – OMC

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