We’ve all been there - chopping up an onion when suddenly, you’re crying more than you did during the ending of Firefly Lane.
The pungent vegetable is notorious for irritating eyes, and yet, many of us refuse to flavor our meals without it.
If you’re tired of salting your ingredients with tears, you might want to try this latest viral hack.
A video on TikTok has proposed a DIY solution to the common cooking problem, marking a possible end to the age-old nuisance. One user shared her tried-and-tested trick to keeping tears at bay while cutting onions - and it’s a lot simpler than you might think.
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“Let me share my wisdom, so you don’t have to cry anymore,” she said, in response to a video of another user venting about crying while she chops onions to make soup.
The culinary savvy youngster explained that the acid in onion is drawn to the nearest water source, which is usually the person’s eyes. The solution is therefore to provide an alternative for the thirsty onion.
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“All you have to do is get a damp paper towel, fold it up, keep it on your cutting board. That acid will be drawn to the wet paper towel and not your tear ducts,” she said.
The video has now been viewed nearly 500k times, with many Tiktokers sharing their gratitude for the game-changing hack.
“Me learning this after cutting onions for the last 10 years with swimming goggles on,” one user commented.
Others jumped on the tip-sharing bandwagon and gave their own advice on reducing the risk of crying. “I always put onions in the fridge or freezer to make them cold. No more crying!” a TikToker named Courtney said.
Other methods that have been known to help include cooking the onion before knifing it to inactivate its enzymes or running a fan to blow its vapors away from your eyes.
You could also just give up onions altogether, but we know that that’s likely to cause a whole lot more tears in the long run.
