Over the years, I've run into a few things that weren't immediately-obvious to me.
One of the big ones was eating pomegranates by opening them underwater. For those not familiar, pomegranates have a lot of red seeds and white husk between them:
Cutting a pomegranate or even opening a pomegranate tends to burst at least some seeds. The seeds are sticky and stain and tend to spray juice when pierced.
However, if you just cut through the outer hull of the fruit, then open it by hand underwater in a bowl of water, any juice that would have sprayed out is just grabbed by the water. Even better, the (inedible) white husk floats, so it self-separates instead of sticking to everything.
Today, I decided to try eating a watermelon with a spoon. In the past, that's tended to also make things spray, so I tried a grapefruit spoon, one with serrations that runs down the side. And that works great -- the spoon is like a knife, can go more-cleanly through the watermelon than a regular spoon, and still lets you scoop up the watermelon.
Any other neat tips that might be unorthodox or that people might not have tried or know about?
I’m very responsive to onions. If my SO isn’t around, I’ll use either my motorcycle helmet or swim goggles to cut one up.
I understand that water reacts with it too -- that is, the gas that it releases reacts with the water in your eye, so if it reacts somewhere else, that'd be better. I've seen a recommendation to cut it under water. That seems like too much trouble for me, but I at some point in the past, I did start quickly rinsing the onion after the first cut so that there's water on the onion and knife and cutting board, and it does seem to significantly reduce the impact; it's never really been a problem since then.
kagis
https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/59688/why-does-cutting-onions-cause-tears
Looking elsewhere, I also see a couple recommendations to chill the onion in a refrigerator prior to cutting it, and several webpages saying that it worked well for them.
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/how-to-cut-onions-without-crying
I'm not sure what's going on here. I saw one page that said that it makes the gas coming off the onion cooler, so it drops away from your eyes. Not sure if that's the actual mechanism, and I've never done it myself.
Some people may plan ahead well enough to be able to refrigerate their onions in advance of needing to chop them; I'm not really that organized, myself.
Yeah, the water thing just doesn’t work. You dice onion on a cutting board, not in a sink.
The other tricks take more effort than grabbing my helmet.
boy I wish I could describe this method of chopping where you cut it in half and then basically use the root to hold it together while you chop but just did an internet search and could not find the method im talking about and its kinda hard to describe.
what i found works for easy chunks is cut the stem part but leave the roots part. with the root part planted on the cutting board cut it into sections like you would a blooming onion(dont cut all the way down). turn on its side and then slice it into those discs but instead ittl fall into diced pieces
You mean something like this?
https://youtu.be/5kOUV6srez4?t=5m7s
yes. this is it. I find it is less tearful.
that sounds like it.
Tuck a damp towel into your collar.
The scent molecules are polar and will stick to the water molecules in the towel.
Then I have a damp towel to deal with and a damp shirt.
Put a dry towel under the damp one if you must
I usually cut them near a window, with a fan blowing towards me. It's not perfect, but anything to have less of the gas reach your face helps.
No window near the kitchen.
I always keep my onions in the refrigerator and never have issues cutting them.
Hmm, onions used to bother me a lot but I haven't really thought about it in years. Apparently using a sharp knife makes a difference. At some point I got a nice knife set that I have been keeping sharp, and my onion issue disappeared but I didn't realize until you reminded me.
I keep mine at a 15 degree edge.
It won’t do that if you keep them in the fridge. I actually stopped doing it because the tears are the closest I come to feeling anymore.
Sadly I’m more susceptible to onions. I’ve tried all these tricks and none of them work well enough to make a difference.
If you hold some water in your mouth while cutting, it helps a lot. I don't know why 🤷♂️