Refrigerate Onions for Tear-Free Chopping

You already know how to cut onions so they don’t make your eyes tear, and it turns out there’s something else you can do to avoid bawling while making dinner: refrigerate the onion for 30 minutes or chill it in ice water first. The latest issue of Popular Science (not online yet) explains that a volatile sulfur compound from the onion floats into your eyes to make them tear.

[The chill] slows down the action of [the onion's] trigger enzyme and saps some energy from the vegetable’s volatile molecules…. It reduces the tendency for the sulfur compound to volatize.

Haven’t had a chance to test out this technique yet, but if you do, let us know how it goes in the comments.