Don’t Allow Onions To Make You Cry: Chopping or slicing onions make you cry? Here are few tips to be followed while cutting them.

Hello Readers,

Lockdown cannot be so boring if you find out the ways to make it interesting even in your kitchen . Make use of your knowledge and learnings apply them in day-today cooking .

I have collaborated with my Aunt Vrinda Borker, who is a Principal in Dhempe college of Arts & Science. She was also Head of Chemistry department , quite knowledgeable person in Chemistry. We are starting Kitchen chemistry series. So this is the first lockdown learning : Don’t Allow Onions To Make You Cry.

while making fried Onion flakes we all face this problem while cutting them in kitchen.
Lachrymatory-factor synthase is released when we cut an onion. This enzyme converts the amino acids sulfoxides of the onion into sulfenic acid. The unstable sulfenic acid forms volatile syn-propanethial-S-oxide. It gets into the air and comes in contact with our eyes. This irritates lachrymal glands and produces tears.

CUTTING ONIONS AFTER CHILLING THEM OR PUTTING IN COLD WATER WILL SLOW RELEASE OF LF ENZYMES, IN TURN WILL GENERATE LESS ACID THAT IRRITATES YOUR EYES ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU WANT TO CUT LARGE QUANTITY..

Sulfur is a chemical that provides the strong smell. These sulfur compounds, along with a phytochemical found in onions called Allicin, can lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Sulfur compounds have been attributed to preventing heart diseases.

(Ref.: J. A. Silvaroli, M. J. Pleshinger, S. Banerjee, P. D. Kiser, and M. Golcza, ACS Chem. Biol. 2017, 12(9): 2296–2304)

If you want to make crisp fried onion flakes apply little salt to cut flakes of onions. Water will ooze out due to OSMOSIS. Remove water by pressing and deep fry. Time to fry is less.

Happy Learning and Cooking 🙂

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Author of this article is Vrinda Borkar.