Onions

Why does chopping an onion make you cry?

It is not the strong odor of the onion that makes us cry, but the gas that the onion releases when we sever this member of the lily family.

The onion itself contains oil, which contains sulfur, an irritant to both our noses and to our eyes. Cutting an onion arouses a gas contained within the onion, propanethiol S-oxide, which then couples with the enzymes in the onion to emit a passive sulfur compound. When this upwardly mobile gas encounters the water produced by the tear ducts in our eyelids, it produces sulfuric acid.

In response to the caustic acid, our eyes automatically blink, and produce tears which irrigate the eye, and which flush out the sulfuric acid.

Another reflex to rid the eyes of a foreign substance, that of rubbing our eyes with our hands, often exacerbates the situation, because our hands are coated with the caustic, sulfuric acid producing oil from cutting the onion, which we then rub directly into our eyes.

Much to our chagrin, the only remedy for ridding the onion of its pungent, irritating oil is to boil it, not to slice it or dice it.

Onions produce the chemical irritant known as syn-propanethial-S-oxide. It stimulates the eyes’ lachrymal glands so they release tears. Scientists used to blame the enzyme allinase for the instability of substances in a cut onion. Recent studies from Japan, however, proved that lachrymatory-factor synthase, (a previously undiscovered enzyme) is the culprit

The process goes as follows:

Lachrymatory-factor synthase is released into the air when we cut an onion.
The synthase enzyme converts the sulfoxides (amino acids) of the onion into sulfenic acid.
The unstable sulfenic acid rearranges itself into syn-ropanethial-S-oxide.
Syn-propanethial-S-oxide gets into the air and comes in contact with our eyes. The lachrymal glands become irritated and produces the tears!

will try....

Little did I know what I was starting with my New Year's message. Bravo Ruud.

here's an onion just after awaking.

Ruud,wenn ich dein Zwiebelbild richtig deute, so sehe ich die l"nu-nun - so -e-b-e-n " aufgewachte Zwiebel, die gerade im Begrgiff ist ihr Negligé auszuziehen.

And what is this? It happens ogten to Onions!

Meet the family....!

Natürlich das "Vernaschen': Dumme- dumme runde Zwiebel, deinen siebten Schleier hättest du lieber nicht& never& nooit & potë hergeben dürfen- Dumm gelaufen, mein Schätzchen!

I'M GOING TO RECYCLE MYSELF. NONE CAN HELP ME... Sorry...

MAYBE WITH THE NEW FABULOUS YEAR I'LL HAVE A METAMORPHOSIS AND I'LL BECOME AN HUMAN ONION...

To all members of "ONIONS" group:

I wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy new year to all

It's really an interesting collection! Hope it will grows more...

look out for the red ones..... They are so tasty.

Hey! Onion!

Instant Spring.

Ah, Belgian anecdote. The national slogan here is "eendracht maakt macht" (union makes our strength, very funny for a country so divided in linguistic communities).
The slogan in French is "l'union fait la force".
Artists joking on the Belgian situation have altered this into
"l'onion fait la farce" (farce is a joke but also to stuff something, so a cookery term)

I also remember I made visual poems with onion and tulipe-bulbs.
If I can find photos of these compositions I'll scan them and put them here.

NO ONIONS

Chopping an onion will not make you cry if the onion is cold.

Always keep a few onions in the refrigerator, and take them out just before you chop them. No woman no cry.

But, now that I think about it, maybe it's better to cry when you chop onions. The tears, mixed with the sulfenic acid, might be very good for washing the eyes and removing harmful bacteria. My eyes have been tired all the time in recent years. I thought it was just aging or too much staring at computer screens, but it could be because I learned that trick about chilling onions.

A friend once told me that if you have a reason to cry but you don't, then it causes disease -- a cold, or even worse.
Maybe I should chop a warm onion every day after I read the news.

or pull out a nose hair.

Lets grow....

Memories of when we were at Onion School....

Onions caught up the THE NET.

Onions make me cry. They are Fluxus Crybabies.

Crybabies. That is a word I will have to look up in the Onion Bible I just purchased for the Onion Archive.

Mick Boyle said: I changed my mind and my comment. I now think Nobody is a crybaby. Hooray for the red white and blue! I am now going to scan my american flag and write a score about it.

Nobody replies: Micky Boyle is right. I even found a video where the Fluxlist people documented how the tried to get rid of this ' crybaby':


That is what has been writen in the Onion Bible. They also mention a source:

http://fluxlist.blogspot.com/2007_08_05_archive.html

Onions Lessons for Allan

Δεν είναι δύσκολο να ψιλοκόψουμε κρεμμύδι. Θα σας δείξω τον τρόπο που χρησιμοποιώ εγώ και που δεν με κουράζει καθόλου, μια και είναι πολύ γρήγορος και δίνει την δυνατότητα να επιλέγω εγώ πόσο ψιλό θα είναι κομμένο.
1. Kόβουμε με το μαχαίρι την άκρη του κρεμμυδιού από την πλευρά του κοτσανιού και όχι των ριζών.
2. Ακουμπάμε την κομμένη πλευρά στο ξύλο κοπής και κόβουμε, χωρίς να ξεφλουδίσουμε, το κρεμμύδι στη μέση.
3. Ξεφλουδίζουμε τα δύο μισά του κρεμμυδιού, αφήνοντας το τμήμα με τις ρίζες ανέπαφο.
4. Kόβουμε με το μαχαίρι το κρεμμύδι σε λωρίδες, χωρίς να τις αποχωρίσουμε εντελώς. Αφήνουμε ενωμένη την πλευρά στο τμήμα της ρίζας. Στο τέλος το κρεμμύδι θα θυμίζει βεντάλια. Όσο πιο πυκνά χαράξουμε το κρεμμύδι, τόσο πιο ψιλοκομμένο θα βγει.
5. Kόβουμε τώρα κάθετα το κρεμμύδι μας. Όσο πιο κοντά το ένα κόψιμο στο άλλο, τόσο πιο ψιλοκομμένο το κρεμμύδι.
6. Το κρεμμύδι το έχουμε ψιλοκόψει όλο και το ακρινό τμήμα με τις ρίζες το πετάμε.

Clear?
w.w.w.
Litsa Spathi

We favor red onions here in Ohio.

Is that really ALL THE ONIONS? Constantly revised and updated? Or, no more onions beyond the book? I'll have to revise my cooking (and crying) if this is the end.

An Union with old clothes....

Where are all those onions?

The word onion comes from the Latin word unio for "single," or "one," because the onion plant produces a single bulb, unlike its cousin, the garlic, that produces many small bulbs. The name also describes the union (also from unio) of the many separate, concentrically arranged layers of the onion.

Onion Prints coming your way soon :-)

I love onions, too.
And I love your onion etegami both, Deborah!
What does the Japanese phrase say?

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind...and in onions, too!

The Onion Prints from Katerina Nikoltsou arrived in Breda! Thank you so much!

Glad the onion-print tags arrived, Ruud!
Here is a pic of that sliced onion :-)
along with some Greek feta cheese, olives, tomato.
Doesn't get better than this!

yes, that tastes very good!

Hi onionlovers! My daughter is doing a science project of testing folk remedies for NOT crying while you chop onions. Do you have any that work. I was thinking of doing a series of postcards on her results.

Slice,chop or grate onions near the sink with the water running...
ol' Greek wives' solutions...no tears :-)

Not since August! Well, I need ONIONS!

Making circles, circles, circles of my mind...

and some half-onions, too, for those "windmills of my mind"!  ;-)