Kitchen Musings : No more tears

We're currently in the thick of testing some kitchen equipment for a magazine feature next year.  In order to properly assess all the equipment on equal footing, we're doing a series of "consistency tests" – cooking the same recipe using every machine and keeping track of its results.

One of our tests was based on a recipe primarily using sliced onions – specifically 2.5 lbs in each recipe.  We're testing about ten machines, so you can imagine how many onions we had to slice!!  I weep almost every time I cut onions, so I've tried various methods to keep myself tear-free: lighting a candle next to my cutting board, running onions under cold tap water, and even chopping onions in the freezer! 

In anticipation of slicing 25 lbs of onions, we needed to prepare for this big task. Candles and running water were not enough to help us here, and I was definitely not going to slice all these onions in the freezer!

Our solution?

 

Swimming goggles!

 

As you can see, Lyn opted out on the goggles but still wanted to join in the fun :)

The result was a tear-free onion slicing marathon!  It almost looked like a scene from the movie Julie & Julia.  To speed up your onion chopping at home, here's a tip we used to peel our onions: Trim off the tops and bottoms, then halve each onion. Your fingers should be able to easily peel off the skin and membrane of the onion!

 

Have a safe and happy Halloween this weekend!