C'mon girlz, get over yourselves. I've had (yes, had) to do a lot of things in life to please my wife. So some gal had to learn to cook for a man? Big deal. What a sacrifice, what a pathetic slave, what a submissive wretch.
American women are becoming nothing but nags, hags and shrews if anyone should take the tone of your extreme selfishness seriously.
Juice from an onion releases a gas that creates hydrochloric acid when it mingles with the liquid of your eyes. That's why they burn and tear.
I used to open a kitchen window nest to my table I worked at before I knew this and let a draft carry away the onion air (a fan will do also) until my wife bought me onion goggles. A pair of glasses with rubber that keeps your eyes protected from onion gas.
Every now and then I chop a shallot and don't bother to get the goggles from the drawer and I start to tear up and wonder why I think I would be so quick as to avoid the burning eyes. (I'm no super knife skilled Iron Chef.)
Buy the goggles. They work great or chop onions before a breezy window.
HAhaha, no, no problem with the eyelids...but there could be just depends on the shape of your head I guess.
Use of plastic wrap was mute, it was in a restaurant that wasn't slowing down anytime soon.
To each his, er her, own I guess...have Santa send me some for Christmas.
...cook, chef, culinary sponge, traveler, volunteer, missionary.
tyronebcookin
Thanks Tyrone - I have actually been hard-boiling my freaking eggs according to Tony Bourdain's freaking directions in LesHalle cookbook and they are so freaking perfect every time! But I must admit I snuck in a pinch of salt - what can I say? Creature of habit.
I am now egg-ucating myself on Harold McGee's basic egg dishes pages 87 thru 89!
I'm pro-onion goggles, as well. I added a pair to my wedding registry this past year, on a whim. To my surprise, I've found myself using and enthusing about them repeatedly. They really do work, and make you feel like a Ninja Turtle while you cook (especially mine, which are green), which is an added bonus, in my book. I have never tried the plastic wrap idea-- do your eyelids really open and close comfortably when wrapped in plastic wrap...don't your eyelashes get smushed into your eyeballs?-- but I try to limit my use of plastic wrap, generally, for environmental reasons.
frederika: I don't add salt to water for boiling eggs...never knew there was a controversy ? That one is news to me...either Harold McGee or 'The New Kitchen Science' can bring you up to speed quick with things like that.
I haven't had problems with graying yolks or problems peeling eggs once learning science behind it...which is just usually consistent methods or understanding the food itself.
ExpatChef: It drove me nuts trying to convince my 'bosses' that those fruits did not ripen after picking! Finally had to break them down with the old USDA site!
...cook, chef, culinary sponge, traveler, volunteer, missionary.
tyronebcookin
Not as cheap or available as Saran Wrap/Plastic food Wrap...Just get a wide and long enough strip (easy to do) and wrap around eyes and twist or tie together behind your head - You may look like a ninja turtle, but you can throw it away after your onion cutting is done...and never have to worry about damaging of misplacing.
It has never fogged up or caused problems seeing, been around for years...
Just ask anyone who has made 'onion strings' by the hundreds of pound for Landry's or Copeland's (and lots of other places and uses).
Like Alton Brown says, the only uni-tasker he wants in the kitchen is a fire extinguisher...and those glasses won't do much else.
...cook, chef, culinary sponge, traveler, volunteer, missionary.
tyronebcookin
What about adding salt to the water when hard boiling eggs? There has always been a controversy about that - is there any validity? I always add salt but really only because my mother did it that way!
How about the use of the word "caramelize" to mean "brown"?
Everyone is caramelizing everything nowadays. Caramelization refers to the oxidation of sugar, so since onions have a lot of sugar, we can get away with the use of that word.
Because it's become common usage, it's not like it bothers me, but while sugars can caramelize, proteins undergo maillard reactions when they brown.
In the salted, seared steak example, the great thing about salting a steak and letting it sit before cooking it is that the salt draws out water from the flesh and with the water comes dissolved amino acids, which, when exposed to heat, undergo maillard reactions and become delicious and brown.
With onions, breaking the cell walls allows enzymes in different parts of different cells in the onion to intermingle, creating gases that, when they meet the water in your eyes, create sulfuric acid. Ouch. The best way to protect yourself is to protect your eyes, refrigerate the onion and use a sharp knife. This minimizes exposure to and intermingling of the chemicals.
And the story of the flame and the onion is if you put the flame near the onion, it creates convection currents, and the fumes from the onion move with the air toward the flame and when they reach it they are incinerated. I'm not sure how well it works or how exactly to position oneself to minimize exposure, but it's worth a try.
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