this meme is wrong
what really happens is that this thiopropenal S-oxide attacks free thiol in one receptor that usually detects spicy smells, much like about any modern tear gas (CN, CS, CR. also allyl isothiocyanate from mustard and many, many, many other alkylating things). there’s no acid involved
At some point I started running cold water on the knife before cutting and onion, and it seems to help. Does anyone know if there’s science behind this, or am I making shit up?
Others in this thread have pointed out that running cold water over your arms helps. So maybe while you wet your blade, your arms get wet too…?
my guess would be that it dilutes the stuff in onion cells that reacts and creates the irritating gas, and maybe even prevents the reaction from happening or just dissolves the gas into the water instead
It was fun to discover that contact lenses are like a superpower when it comes to cutting onions. Finally, a benefit to being utterly blind!
You can also heavily dehydrate yourself if you don’t wanna cry, might work haven’t tried it yet
Run cold water on your wrists. Problem solved.
