How do you keep onions from making you cry?

We love the flavor onions can give to your food, but certainly not the chopping part that causes you to cry. There are several things you can try when chopping onions that should stop or reduce the tears that usually come with chopping onions.

1. Chewing gum while chopping onions seems to stop the crying. I'm not certain why this is, but it has worked for me. I noticed one time I chopped onions and I didn't seem to cry and I had been chewing gum so I tried it without chewing gum and cried and then tried it chewing gum again and no tears.

2. Cut out the core of the onion, where the root comes out. This section contains most the juices that produce the tears.

3. Put the unpeeled onion in the freezer for about 10 minutes, give or take a few. Once you remove the onion from the freezer, peel immediately and chop.

4. Soak the onion in a bowl of water and peel off the skin, remove the onion form the water and chop.

5. Be sure to use a sharp knife when working with onions, a dull blade will crush the onion rather than cut it causing more juices to be released.

6. Burn a candle close to the area where the onion is being chopped. The candle will burn off the fumes that cause the eye irritation. I recommend a scented candle of your favorite scent.

7. Make sure the area is well ventilated. I recommend opening a window some to keep fresh air circulating through the room to help reduce the smell of the onions.