One of the easiest vegetables to cut is the onion. The cellular structure seems designed for dicing and lends itself to fast and relatively easy dicing when you know what you’re doing. This classical technique not only makes quick work of cutting the onion but is designed to drastically reduce the exposure of the tear-inducing oils to the air thus making the process far more painless for those prone to onion tears.
Begin by cutting a shallow slit through the peel along the length of the onion
Remove the peel
Check the onion for signs of spoilage, if there is spoilage completely remove the layers of onion containing the spoilage until you have a clean, pristine onion...it will look like this all the way around
Cut the onion in half lengthwise (lengthwise means the root will be split in half by halfing the onion.
Cut the tip off so that you only have fleshy, non-peel onion to work with
Controlling the spacing of your knife by guiding it with the sides of your knuckles, your fingertips and thumb safely tucked in behind, cut a series of slits lengthwise about 1/8 inch from one and other cutting all the way through to the board but keeping the onion mass in total still connected to the root end, like so.
Cut the 1/8 inch wide slices lengthwise across the entire half of the onion.
Secure the onion by firmly pressing it down into the board with your fingertips turned in for safety. Carefully cut one slice at a right angle to the direction you made your 1/8 inch slices so that the face of your knife is parallel to the board, like so. Your cut should be made deep to the root of the onion as your 1/8 inch slices were while retaining the integrity of the entire onion half.
Again controlling the spacing of your cuts by guiding your knife with the face of your knuckles, fingertips and thumb tucked in for safety like so, cut a series of crosswise slices a a right angle to the 1/8 inch slices you made lengthwise. Space these slices at 1/8 inch so that you end up with 1/8 inch by 1/8 inch cubes of onion
Repeat the slices crosswise through the entire onion half. Your diced onion will look uniform and professionally done like this. Repeat for the halves of as many onions as you may need.
And this is how the professionals cut onions! It is fast and highly effective. I have been cutting onions for so many years that my tear ducts just don’t care anymore. When I was very new to cooking, and if I get an especially potent one even today, I was prone to crying while cutting. A helpful remedy to this it to light a wooden matchstick, the sulfurous odor will fill the room which helps to counter the onion, I then hold the matchstick with the burnt end out just under my nose while I cut the onions. No tears! Onions are delicious.
D. McGray
Travis Brock Kennedy
