The hardest part of the kitchen is peeling and chopping onions. And rarely does anyone manage to do this without drowning in a sea of tears.
Here are some easy ways to peel onions without shedding a single tear.
Cold water
There are several ways to use cold water when cutting onions: you can moisten the knife with water before and during cutting onions, or put a peeled onion in it for a few minutes beforehand.
Refrigerator and freezer
Put the onion in the freezer for at least an hour beforehand. It will also help if you cool the knife in the same way for 15 minutes before that.
Boiling water
Cut the onion near boiling water, the steam from which can disperse tear substances. Alternatively, you can first cut the onion into large pieces, put them in boiling water for a few minutes, and then continue to cut the onion without tears.
Get water in your mouth
Fill your mouth with water and hold it until the onion is finished cutting. These manipulations also prevent the release of tears.
Parsley or chewing gum
While chopping onions, chew parsley or gum. This method oxidizes the substances that cause tears and renders them harmless.
Fan or extractor
Place a fan next to your cutting board, or cut onions next to a fan hood, and tear vapors will escape faster than they can reach your eyes.
candle or gas
Cut an onion next to a lit candle or gas on, and the flame will oxidize all the substances that cause tears when cutting onions.
Vinegar
Spread vinegar on a cutting board and the chemical reaction will neutralize the onion fumes.
Salt
Sprinkle the cutting board with salt, and the juices released when cutting onions will be absorbed by the salt. It is preferable to use coarse salt.
lemon slice
In addition to the above methods, a cutting board can be grated with a slice of lemon. Lemon juice also neutralizes the tearing effect of onion vapor.
Right knife
The choice of knife is also very important in the process of cutting onions. In order for the cutting process to be faster and at the same time to release as few tear substances as possible, it is necessary to give preference to a sharp, smooth knife without cloves and notches.
Proper breathing
Goggles or headband
Cover your eyes and mouth with swimming goggles or a cotton gauze bandage. This will help to avoid burning in the eyes, and you will be able to cut onions with complete peace of mind.
Food processor
A modern way for those who are not looking for difficult ways. But keep in mind: the combine bowl must be tightly closed, so the blender in this case will not help you at all.
green onion
If possible, just replace the onions with green ones. As a rule, such a substitution practically does not affect the taste of dishes.
Before the turnip gets into food, it must be peeled. The procedure is sometimes unpleasant, but useful - in all respects. The husk protects the onion from physical impact on the fruit, and by spring it becomes coarser - it grows up to 3 layers.
Onions are peeled by mechanical action with knives or abrasive materials on automatic, semi-automatic machines, or, each individual onion, by hand. Each method has its own merits.
1) The mechanical method of peeling onions is to remove the husk with knives.
To achieve a high effect and reduce losses, the bow is pre-calibrated in shape and size.
Knives are usually located on such machines in 2 planes: vertical knives cut the lobe and feather, the horizontal one makes an incision in the shape of an onion. Further removal of a peel is made under the influence of air and a mechanical visor. To reduce the amount of waste when removing the lobe and feather, the knives are on flexible or articulated couplings, which open and become in the shape of the bow, making a minimum cut. The horizontal knife is also adjustable for the depth of penetration and is adjusted before starting work, depending on the variety and quality of the onion. Such machines are provided with devices for removing essential oils, automatic conveyors for removing the husk and the finished product, since the performance of these machines allows you to process tons of onions non-stop in a short period of time. The disadvantage on these machines is the obligatory orientation along the axis - if the bow is not located in the working position on the seat, then the removal of the feather and lobe with vertical knives will not occur correctly. Solutions - to orient the bow along the axis on the seat, manufacturers install semi-automatic devices using live labor, or automatic devices - pneumomechanical orientators with position control of each seat.
2) If we consider the abrasive cleaning method, then its essence boils down to the following
Loading of an onion in cars of cyclic or non-stop action -
- cleaning process - rotation of abrasive rollers or abrasive vessel wall (with or without water supply)
- unloading the peeled onion, manually removing feathers and lobes
The method is very effective for lettuce onions with light husks, of any size and shape, and low productivity. The disadvantage of this process is the use of manual labor for the final cleaning of the onions, a large amount of waste and the possibility of infection of healthy onions from diseased specimens, since the cleaning takes place in full contact with other bulbs.
The bulbs are cleaned of external dry scales attached to the bottom and tightly fitting their surface in 2-4 layers (depending on the humidity of the scales), the bottom and neck are cut and removed. This work is very time-consuming and is further complicated by the fact that the essential oil contained in the cells of the fleshy scales of the bulbs, which includes C 6 H 12 S 2 disulfide, evaporates into the surrounding atmosphere during the cleaning of the bulbs and irritates the mucous membrane of the eyes of workers.
In the canning industry onion peeling carried out pneumatically, hydraulically and mechanically.
Pneumatic way to peel onions has long been known and widely used in canning factories. Its essence is as follows: when rubbing against the rough surface of the working part of the onion peeler, the integumentary dry scales of the bulbs are first torn, and then blown off the bulbs with compressed air under a pressure of 0.59-0.68 MPa and are removed with the help of a cyclone into the waste collector.
The pneumo-onion cleaning plant consists of a skin-cleaning machine 7 (Fig. 25) and a cyclone 1. Onions with a cut neck and a root lobe are loaded into a hopper 3, from where they are fed in portions (6 kg) by a dispenser 4 into a cylindrical steel case 5 on a rotating bottom, the surface of which is covered with an abrasive mass. Along the circumference of the body, slightly above the rotating bottom, there is an air duct that supplies compressed air to the machine.
Due to the friction of the bulbs on the rotating bottom and each other, as well as shock jets of compressed air, the skin lags behind, detaches from the bulb and is carried away by air through pipeline 2 to cyclone 1. The skin in the cyclone is separated from the air and collected in collection 8. During the unloading of the cleaned bow from the cyclone (through door 6), the air supply stops.
Onion peeling lasts 40 s. The time for unloading and loading the machine is 10 s. After cleaning the onions in the machine, inspection and cleaning of individual bulbs is required.
The disadvantages of the pneumatic method of peeling onions are as follows:
over 20% of bulbs require manual re-cleaning;
the need for mandatory preliminary drying of onions with high humidity;
the release, as in manual cleaning, of volatile essential oils, which cause irritation of the mucous membrane of the eyes and lacrimation in workers.
Hydraulic way to peel onions was first proposed in 1957 by A.F. Karpenko at the Sevsky Vegetable Drying Plant. For preliminary cleaning of the onions, a conventional three-chamber fist washer with semi-submerged beaters was used. When cleaning non-calibrated onions in a washing machine, 39% of the bulbs were completely cleaned, then requiring only trimming of the neck and bottom, 38% were cleaned by half and 23% of the bulbs were not cleaned. Labor productivity in onion cleaning after its pre-treatment in a washing machine increased by 36% compared to the manual method. The use of this method also somewhat improved the working conditions of those working in this process.
Continuing the search begun in the industry for other technical possibilities to eliminate the shortcomings inherent in the pneumatic method of peeling onions, the innovators of the Cherkasy Cannery (A. S. Koval, V. F. Gaman, G. I. Nepogodin) made some technical improvements to the design of the KPL pneumatic onion peeler -2 Odessa plant "Prodmash" (supplying water to the collector, increasing the cleaning cycle and the volume of simultaneously peeled onions, installing a waste collector and a pipeline to drain them into the sewer) and transferred it to the hydraulic mode of operation (Fig. 26).
KPL-2: 1 - electric motor; 2 - collection for husks; 3 - scraper for husks; 4 - rotating disk; 5 - collector; 6 - water supply; 7 - body; 8 - bulb dispenser; 9 - loading hopper; 10 - unloading hatch.
In the modernized machine, with the help of water, it is possible to soften the blows of the bulbs against each other, against the cylindrical surface of the body and the rotating bottom of the machine, and, ensuring good cleaning quality, protect the surface of the bulbs from deformation and inevitable damage, and also significantly reduce the release of volatile essential oils.
Peeled husks and other waste are removed by waste water into the sewer. Water is supplied to the machine at a pressure of 0.15-0.2 MPa (1.5-2.0 atm). The onion peeling cycle is 6 seconds with the mass of the simultaneously processed portion being 8 kg.
The experience of operating the modernized machine at the Cherkasy cannery has shown that the quality of onion peeling is good, the waste has decreased compared to the norm and makes up no more than 12% and no more than 16% of the initial mass when peeling calibrated onions and not more than 16% of uncalibrated onions.
At the Odessa cannery in 1974-1976. a production line for onion peeling was introduced, which included machines designed and manufactured at the plant for trimming the bottoms and necks of onions and for peeling onions from integumentary scales. Consider the device diagrams and the principle of operation of each of them.
The machine for trimming the bottoms and necks of onions (Fig. 27) works as follows. The operator serving the machine places the bulbs from the conveyor 1 into the trays 2, mounted on the frame, or into the grips for the bulbs 5 on the rotating feed disk 3.
Each tray and each gripper consists of parallel V-notched plates. When the disk rotates, the grippers 5 with bulbs approach the disk knives 8 located above it, which can rotate and move along the axis of the shaft 7. The bulbs are tightly pressed by a spring-loaded latch 6 at the moment of trimming and are held in the grips. The amount of bulb trimming is regulated by the orientation mechanism, which consists of two hinged spring-loaded plates 11 with rollers 10 placed in the circular grooves 9 of the knife hubs. At the lower ends of the plates there are trays 4 tapering to the disc knives, which, when the bulbs enter them, diverge together with the plates, pushing the disc knives apart with rollers according to the size of the bulb. Cropped bulbs are ejected from the grippers using rotating ejectors 12.
In table. 25 shows the amount of waste depending on the size of the bulbs, as well as the productivity achieved by one operator when trimming onions on this machine. Labor productivity increased 3 times compared to manual pruning.
Table 25
| Bulb diameter, mm | Mass of one bulb, g | The number of bulbs in 1 kg, pcs. | Labor productivity of the operator (on a cut onion), kg | The number of uncut onions (on average),% |
||
The principle of operation of the machine for cleaning onions designed by N. S. Feshchenko is similar to the principle of operation of machines for pneumatic cleaning of onions. In it, compressed air under pressure (up to 0.5 MPa) also serves as a working medium.
In contrast to the known designs of pneumatic onion cleaning machines, in which the friction of the bulbs against each other, on the rough surface of the cylinder and the bottom of the machines was achieved due to the centrifugal force created during the rotation of the bottom, in the machine designed by N. S. Feshchenko, a complex movement obtained by the bulbs was used to intensify friction with the simultaneous rotational movement of the cleaning drum and the linear movement of the paddle conveyor, which moves the bulbs along the tray above the drum.
The machine (Fig. 28) works as follows.
The bulbs after trimming, passing through the volumetric dispenser 1, fill the tray 3, located above the drum 2, the surface of which is covered with a notch or corundum. With the help of blades 4, located above the tray of the chain conveyor 5, the bulbs move along the tray along the surface of the rotating drum. As a result of the complex movement that the bulbs make, the integumentary dry scales are torn and blown off the bulbs by compressed air coming through the nozzles from the manifold 6. Then they are sucked out of the machine into the cyclone using a fan. The peeling cycle for one portion of onions on this machine is 6 seconds. The completeness of onion cleaning is 95%. The average productivity of the machine is 1.5 t/h. Compressed air consumption 90-120 m 3 /h.
Some enterprises used water instead of compressed air in the machine, others transferred them to the mode of operation using steam of the same pressure as compressed air.
The use of steam instead of compressed air as a working medium for onion peeling has practically no effect on the surface condition of the upper layers of fleshy scales (no signs of cooking were observed), since onion processing is carried out for only 6 s at atmospheric pressure and the onion temperature rises by no more than at 10-15 ° C.
When cleaning onions with this machine with water, the pressure of the jets should be 0.1-0.2 MPa, higher pressure damages the fleshy scales and increases the loss of onion solids. The duration of cleaning increases by 1.5-2 times. The maximum water flow is 2.5 m 3 /h. Productivity of the car - 750 kg/h.
Mechanical methods of cleaning onions based on the use of machines with knife discs. These machines are part of the technological lines of equipment developed abroad. So, in the HA-T/2 line, a conventional carborundum machine was used, which is used for cleaning root crops and operates in a wet mode.
A peeling machine is installed in the Finis line. Around the circumference of the machine casing in a vertical plane there are 30 rapidly rotating knife disks with 7 knives radially located on each of them. Onions after cutting the bottoms and necks, falling on a horizontal rotating disk located at the bottom of the casing, are thrown to the knife discs on the circumference of the casing and peeled. Each blade disc is individually driven by an individual electric motor.
After cleaning by any of the methods discussed above, the onion goes for inspection and rinsing with clean water under a shower device.
The A9-KCHI machine for trimming the ends of the onion has a frame on which the feed mechanism, the mechanism for trimming the ends of the onion, the conveyor and electric motors are installed.
Bulbs sorted by machine or manually with a diameter of 35-80 mm are loaded into the hopper of the machine. Bulbs from the bunker with the help of the feeder fall on the orienting device. The cutter heads cut off the rhizome and upper ends of the bulbs, and then the bulbs are pushed out of the working area along the inclined tray. Waste when cutting onions on the machine is 2 times less than when manually cutting and is 6-8%. The machine was developed by the Odessa SKTB and is manufactured at the Odessa mechanical plant "Prodmash".
Few people like to peel onions, especially when tears begin to flow involuntarily. To get around this problem, try one of the following methods, which will show you how to cut and peel an onion of any size in seconds!
Method 1 of 2: Bow mode using the vertical cut method
Method 2 of 2: Bow mode using the heat method
- If you don't cut off one end of the onion right away, it will be easier for you to peel the onion. However, when you cut an onion, it's best to remove both ends. Don't forget to cut off the left end when you're done cutting.
- Soak the onion in cold water for 10 minutes and then cut it... this will keep you from crying.
- You can also chew gum or put a piece of bread in your mouth to prevent tears.
- If you don't want to cut the onion in half, make a shallow cut from top to bottom, just enough to remove the top layer and peel the onion.
- If you wear goggles (use diving goggles), you won't cry while cutting onions... it looks silly, but it's effective!
- Try inserting two pieces of cloth into both nostrils, you won't cry. This method is similar to the above with glasses. Or you can just hold your breath.
Warnings
- If possible, use a separate cutting board for each of the following: raw meat, poultry, cooked foods, seafood, fruits and vegetables, and dairy products. This will help you avoid cross contamination. (For example, the bacteria found in the juice of raw meat can spoil vegetables if you use the same board). After each use, wash your cutting board thoroughly in hot, soapy water.
- Always wash fruits and vegetables before cutting them to prevent disease-causing bacteria from getting on the inside of the fruit or vegetable.
- Washing your hands and a stainless steel knife after slicing an onion (or garlic) will remove the odor from your fingers.
- Use a non-serrated knife: A serrated knife creates jagged cuts when slicing onions, and if you're not careful, you could hurt yourself!
- Always be careful when using kitchen knives to avoid cuts.
“Grandfather is sitting, dressed in a hundred fur coats. Whoever undresses him sheds tears” - this ancient riddle about onions leaves no doubt that at all times one had to cry when “communicating” with this caustic vegetable. But you can’t do without it in cooking. Is there a way to peel and cut onions without crying? There is! "" has more than one option in the piggy bank, so choose the one that you like best.
You can't do without onions in cooking. But cleaning and cutting it is sometimes excruciatingly painful.
Exploitation of loved ones
The surest way not to shed tears from onions is entrust this unpleasant task to another. Husband is most often the victim. although there are other options. It all depends on which of the relatives is within reach and decides on a feat for the sake of your beautiful eyes.
The easiest way to cut onions without crying is to entrust this task to someone else. Protecting the eyes
Those who use contact lenses: they protect the eyes from the irritating action of onion vapors. Glasses no longer have such a wonderful effect, unless they are special Goggles close fitting to the face. As radical as mask, of course, also effective, but perhaps too extravagant.
The means of protection can be quite extravagant. 
Swimming goggles are affordable and effective. Boiling water
To facilitate the process and quickly peel the onion, scald it with boiling water. After that, the husk can be removed with your fingers, without damaging the bulb itself. At the same time, essential oils almost do not stand out, the eyes do not sting. It remains only to cut off the “butt” with a knife, after which you can load the onion into the combine and chop with the lid closed. This is one of the easiest ways to peel onions without crying.
Sometimes you have to peel a lot of onions. Cold
The opposite option, but just as effective as boiling water - cooling. When starting cleaning, turn on the cold water faucet, position yourself near it and from time to time rinse the knife under the stream. If the onion is "thermonuclear", you can also wash your eyes periodically. Discard the peeled bulbs in a cup of cold water if you need to cut them right away. Can be peeled bulbs for a few minutes put in the freezer(just don't forget about them). If time permits, remove it for a day in the refrigerator, only then proceed to cutting. After cooling, the essential oils are not as active, and the pinching of the eyes will not be so strong.
Cutting onions without tears is the dream of every housewife. special means
If you need to chop the onion already peeled, you can use "special tools". Among modern kitchen gadgets there are many who designed for cutting vegetables. If this is not a large food processor, then at least grater or knife + closed container in which chopped onion falls. The contact of caustic volatile substances with the eyes is minimal, and you do not have to wash your face with tears.
The easiest way is to chop the onion in a food processor. 
Plenty of kitchen gadgets today are designed to easily chop onions. 
A plastic container on a grater protects the eyes from essential oils. Ventilation
The easiest way to peel and cut onions without crying is provide good ventilation. Great if you have . Just turn it on to maximum and stand directly under it. In summer you can go out to the courtyard or balcony. In the cold season - sit at the open window. If that doesn't work, just blow under your breath, driving away caustic fumes from the eyes.
Strengthen air exchange will help switched on burner or candle. Place your cutting board at a safe distance from the fire and start slicing the onion.
Jokes aside
Method one: take cold water in your mouth and hold it while you work with the bow. Change the water periodically to maintain the effect.
Having typed cold water in your mouth, you can cut onions and not cry. Method two: pick up matches(pieces 3-4), holding them with their heads out. Keep matches in your teeth at all times while peeling or cutting onions.
Method three: chew gum. On the one hand, chewing to some extent blocks the lacrimal glands, on the other hand, the refreshing effect interrupts the ethereal vapors.
Joke? No, really! Matches in the teeth - onions are not terrible! Which method is right for you depends on the type of onion, the sensitivity of your eyes, and even your surroundings. You can try them all one by one or apply several at the same time. The main thing is that you now know how to peel onions without tears.
