Slicing Onions

Cooking onions is all about their sweetness, but slicing them is automatically associated with their assertive, tear-provoking qualities. I am convinced that the way you cut an onion can change the flavor of a dish. Cutting onions demands real attention and a sharp tool—I always use a supersharp knife. This seemingly small detail can really improve the quality of your cooking. I never put onions in a food processor, because I do not like the flavor of crushed or bruised onions.

If you really want to see this difference, make two quick salsas with fresh tomatoes, onions, and a little jalapeño. For one, mince the onion with a sharp knife, and for the other, blend all the ingredients together in a food processor. In a taste test, you will be surprised by how the hand-chopped version shows off the clean freshness of each ingredient, while the processed salsa fills the room (and the salsa) with the onions’ not so fresh, pungent aroma.

Or compare chives that have been sliced with a very sharp knife to a batch of chives roughly chopped with a knife so dull that it bruises the chives, causing their water to release. The sliced chives are vivid and green, a pleasure to sprinkle over a dish. But the dull-chopped version is mushy, oxidized in 5 minutes, with an off-putting aroma.