Onion smell on hands/CURE WAS:Re: [Sca-cooks] Injuries...

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Mon, 9 Sep 2002, Olwen the Odd wrote:

> Oh.  Take a piece of cut lemon and rub it onto the cutting board.  In the
> case I mentioned, the onions were sooo juicy I had to squeeze puddles of the
> lemon juice down to cut the onion reaction.
> Olwen
> BTW, if you an onion has a really strong smell, you can bet it is going to
> bring a tear to your eye.
>

Hmmm. Any chemists on the list care to explain this one? Is the acid in
the lemon juice bonding with the sulfur in the onion before it can turn to
nasty acid in our eyes?

Any other good ways to prevent onion tears? I read a suggestion somewhere
to refrigerate them, which works a little, or to chop them under running
water, which is patently ridiculous.

Margaret, who can grate horseradish with the best of them, but hates
chopping onions