One more, I'm on a roll. As I was slicing onion for a recipe last night, I pondered

curious1

Well-known member
whether it was best to slice it lengthwise or crosswise. I know I've read that it actually makes a difference in the texture of the onion after it's cooked. So, I'm wondering...what do others do when a recipe just calls for an onion, thinly sliced? (Or do I need to get a life?)

 
Curious, I usually slice crosswise, but if I want them to hold their shape I slice lengthwise.

 
I'm reading "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry,"--in it, a Cordon Bleu chef tells the author

that if you cut quickly with the tip of the knife (drawing back through the onion) rather than rocking the knife and chopping it, it produces less of the chemical that makes you cry.

Really! (I'm not sure if it works, because my knife skills are lousy and I only use the hold-the-tip-on the-board-and-chop technique...) But there you are, just for the sake of comparison. smileys/smile.gif

 
I might have read the difference here. I'll try to remember the crosswise/lengthwise part. No

promises. I seem to have a mind like a sieve.

 
Interesting, I don't usually have a problem unless the onion is really strong, then nothing saves me

 
They have a great onion chopper at the gourmet stores - looks like a french-fry slicer

but with the cross-hatch pattern for chopping onions. Insert onion, pull down handle, wha-la!

 
My sister has one of these and she just loves it.

She showed me how it worked and it really does work pretty well, certainly very fast.

 
The longer you cook an onion, the sweeter it gets. In making Indian food....

the onions are cooked about half an hour before you add other ingredients.

 
I wondered about that... you hate to pay so much for an item that just mashes the heck out of it!

 
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