Onions are used in the preparation of most dishes. Without it, the kitchen is almost impossible. However, he often gets stuck on the question of how to store onions for the winter. One option is to store the onions in a chest. Why in a chest, many ask? After all, we are accustomed from the past to drying onions, even possibly weaving them into tendrils and feeding them in cellars, at dark and low, constant temperatures. Many of us do not have a cold basement with a constant temperature. Many people live in blocks of flats or even houses where they do not have these basement storage options. Sometimes we get caught up in the weather with a humid, wet summer. The onion ripens, but the rotting process begins quickly and would rot a lot during drying. Or we just want to have onions ready for frying, sautéing, etc. at hand when we lack time to cook during the week.
For all these puzzles, a great idea is a pre-prepared, frozen chopped onion.
We clean, peel and remove any irregularities from the onion, if any (trim the inclined parts, cut out any other growths, etc.).
Finally, make 2 to 3 more cross cuts in half of the onion and then cut it vertically into cubes of any size.
The onions are now distributed in vacuum bags. How much onion we put in which bag is a purely personal choice. Just be careful to always use the entire contents of the bag, or do not put the open bag back in the freezer. Sliced onions have a very strong smell that easily passes on to other things we have in the freezer.
Why do we cry when we cut onions?
The culprit is a gas called syn-ropanethial-S-oxide.
Onion cells have two compartments, one containing allinase enzymes and the other sulfides.
When onions are cut, the cells are damaged and the enzymes are mixed with sulfides (amino acid sulfoxides). Sulfonic acids (-SOH) are formed, which are unstable and decompose into a rapidly volatile gas called syn-ropanethial-S-oxide. The gas spreads through the air and so does the eye. Here it reacts with water in the eye and forms a mild sulfuric (VI) acid that irritates the nerve endings in the eye, which we feel as a sting.
I read that onions can be stored in the freezer, but since I never have enough space in it, no matter how big it is, I am forced to store it in paper boxes. The only thing I did was make a mistake last winter, so I put it in the same box with the potatoes, which resulted in early germination of the potatoes in the boxes. I didn't know that then.