What are your thoughts on the new tearless onions, I’m keen to give them a try.
Tearless onions
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Onion tears are not such a problem for me that I want to pay five times the price. I haven’t tried them but it is said they are similar to milder onion cultivars, I would not want to give up the strength of brown onions in dishes such as stews.
For those who do suffer badly from this affliction you can reduce the effect by keeping onions in the fridge and using a very sharp knife.
The reason these things work is the lachrymatory substance is an evolved protection against predators that is produced chemically when tissue is damaged. The sharp knife reduces damage (blunt knives tear) and chilling reduces the speed of the reaction that generates the sting as well as lowering its evaporation into the air.
[edit] I was reading this article that says they will be $10 per kg, according to Woollies they are actually $5 per kg.
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This comment in the link might sum it up…
But while many have praised the fact they have dry eyes now when cooking, others have previously described the new onion as “flavourless”.
Food flavour comes from aromatics when eating (the nose plays it part - don’t believe this is the case, pinch your nose when eating and the food’s flavour disappears). As a result, removing or substantially decreasing the lachrymator compounds in an onion should significantly impact on flavour. Might be good for those who don’t like the taste of onions in food, but, for everyone else it might be a let down.
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Maybe it is just me, but I have been buying, chopping, and using brown and red onions for many years and have never had any tears. Maybe it is just white onions? Wouldn’t know, never use them.
Its a hard NO from me. If people have nt yet discovered how to manage onions without tears, they should just go frozen and be done with it. My personal solution is to leave the roots intact whilst I peel or chop. No issues at all.
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Tearless onions and all rounder potatoes. A travesty that could still bring tears to culinary ambition. 
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The less food is messed about with the better it is for all of us…I used to work in a large commercial kitchen and believe me peeling and putting 20 kilo sacks of onions through a slicer at 2am is not a lot of fun but I still don’t think tearless onions are a good idea.
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There are two ways of looking at that. One is the degree of processing of raw food ingredients, there are threads here that go into that in detail. I think many would agree that a thing that is made of polysyllabic chemicals in a tank is not good food.
The second, which we have here, is altering the habit, size, colour, flavour and many other characteristics by selective and cross breeding. If our ancestors had not been doing that for thousands of years we would not have any of the fruit and vegetables that are grown commercially today.
The natural ancestor of maize had a weedy little cob about 5cm long, the original lettuce was much smaller and very bitter, original cereals were a fraction of the productivity of modern ones, several fruits and vegetables were bordering on toxic, the list goes on. Without that kind of “messing” we would starve.
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Trie to cut normal onions in a bowl of water. you won’t have any tearws anymore.
However you will have big problems slicing or chopping very finely as the bits float away and you increase the risk of cutting yourself quite a bit. When you are finished you have to dry the bits before you fry them.
Similar thinking to SueW’s but I cut out the root before chopping. No tears.
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Just put your onions in the freezer for no more than 10mins before you chop them… you won’t have issues with tears.
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We cant try them in WA, only for the chosen states
Such prejudice! Vote for universal onion accessibility now!
