got a few tricks for dealing with them in our arsenal.
Read on.
Q: What is it that makes onions smell, anyway?
My favorite Calvin and Hobbes strip is the one
where Calvin walks into the kitchen and sees his
mom crying while cutting an onion. He walks away
mumbling, “It must be hard to cook when you
anthropomorphize all your vegetables.” Classic. But
there’s a very real reason we cry when onions are
cut into: defense.
Onions take up sulfur from the soil as they grow,
storing it within larger molecules in their cells.
Separately, they store an enzyme that catalyzes a
reaction that breaks these larger molecules down
into pungent, irritating sulfurous compounds. Only
after the onion’s cells are damaged by chopping or
crushing do the precursors and enzyme mix,
producing what are called lachrymators, the
compounds that attack nerves in our eyes and nose,
causing us to tear up and sneeze. Nature at its most
defensive!
That’s why an uncut onion will have very little
aroma, but as soon as you slice it, the smell begins to
permeate the room.
Q: Those lachrymators really get my tears flowing.
Anything I can do to help it?
There’s no shortage of home remedies that are
claimed to suppress or minimize tearing up: Light a