It’s the Hell in Hell’s Kitchen, the torture in torture chamber. It’s the question that has plagued you ever since you started cooking: How to chop onions without crying?

Here are a few simple steps that make sure cutting onions is no longer the ordeal it usually is. All you need are a cutting board and a smooth sharp-edged knife and you’re ready for battle.

First, make sure your cutting board is placed away from your cooking area, so that any accidental spurt of onion juice does not remain in the air when you are cooking.

Next, cut away both tips of the onion. It is of vital importance that you use a smooth sharp knife. A blunt knife or one with jagged edges will cut unevenly, resulting in unwanted onion juices spurting out.

Once the edges are gone, peel away the brown skin and any layer that has a tinge of brown. Your onion will now have a flat side on each end. Cut the onion in half, take one of the two pieces and begin cutting finely, keeping the flat side down. Ensure that you keep the chopped slices together as you keep cutting. This prevents any of the onion juice to spurt and thus make your eyes sting.

Once you have finished cutting the onion, turn it around perpendicularly and repeat the process. Do the same with the other half.

Put away the sliced onion pieces in a bowl and wash your utensils, and more importantly, your hands.

Now, it is now time to head over to your neighbor and gloat, while she cries over her onions.

Images courtesy: google.com