Cure Onion Tears? Got a Match?

You can hardly find a recipe that doesn't call for chopped onion. Even Julia Child, when describing the mounds of onions she had to chop during her six months at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in the 1950s (and humorously depicted in the 2009 Nora Ephron film Julie & Julia) was known to claim there was no way to avoid the tears - just man up.

Mais non - not any more!

When you place 2-3 wooden matches in your mouth with the tip facing the cutting surface you can cut a few onions without tears! You can see the method demonstrated in the photo below, but add more matches. The match heads somehow absorb the sulfuric compounds emitted from the onions.

The difficulty will be having wooden matches handy.  The photo shows my great find from a local dollar store - a 10-pack of match boxes! These are clever, inexpensive hostess gifts to bring to your family and friends at your next meal celebration so stock up. Once you try this experiment you will want to share this "tip" literally with everyone!

That's a match. . .