Slicing onions makes you cry because when you cut into it, the onion produces a sulfur-based gas. The gas reacts with the water in your eyes and forms sulfuric acid. To rid your eyes of this fiery irritant, your tear ducts work overtime. For no more (or fewer) tears, try moving your face farther away from the onion so the gas disperses before reaching your eyes.
Another suggestion for reducing tears is to first chill the onions for 30 minutes. Then, cut off the top and peel the outer layers leaving the root end intact.
Bulb onions are yellow, red or white. In the United States, about 87 percent of the commercial onion crop is yellow onions, 8 percent is red and 5 percent, white.
Onions range in size from less than 1 inch to more than 4.5 inches in diameter. The most common sizes sold in U.S. markets are 2 to 3.75 inches.
Scallions, or green onions, are actually immature yellow, red or white onions, harvested before the bulb begins to form. "Spring onions" and "salad onions" are other aliases for immature onions.
A scallion is not a shallot. This misnomer probably occurs because "échalion" is another name for the shallot, derived from the French échalote. Shallots have a distinctive taste, but the flavor is closer to that of mature onions than to that of scallions.
The largest onion ever grown weighed 10 pounds, 14 ounces (about 5 kilograms), according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
U.S. farmers plant about 125,000 acres of onions each year and produce about 6.2 billion pounds a year. The top onion-producing areas are Washington state, Idaho, eastern Oregon and California.
The Ieading onion production countries are China, India, United States, Turkey and Pakistan.
The average American eats 20 pounds (9 kg) of onions per year.
To avoid "onion breath," eat a sprig of parsley, or rinse your mouth with equal parts lemon juice and water, or chew a citrus peel.
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