my hands smell like onions

[Tash]

i was making bread the other day with a friend, which included such lovely ingredients as sun dried tomatoes and onions. so i was chopping up the onions, and now my hands smell disgusting and no matter how much soap i use the smell is not going away!! is there some secret recipe that gets out onion smell?!! random topic i know but it's driving me nuts!

[Skeptopotamus]

arg... I actually know exactly what you're talking about.  Just like dont touch your face alot or the scent will get on there too.  Buy one of those pummice stones and rub off all the dead skin and clean/clip your fingernails.

[bernhard]

Yes. There is a solution! (at least four in fact) No need to amputate your hands yet !

1.   Mush parsley in a food processor until it becomes a paste. Use this paste as “soap” (Parsley also gets rid of garlic breath: just chew a bunch of it)

2.   Instead of parsley mush you can rub salt in your hands.

3.   Or you can use coffee powder (the stuff left over in the filter after you make coffee

4.   Or dip your hands in milk before washing them with soap.

(Now of course you have the problem of how to get rid of the smell of parsley/coffee/milk from your hands )

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[xvimbi]

Some more solutions:

1. let someone else chop the onions

2. wear gloves, for example examination gloves.


Now, seriously:

3. make sure you are using a very sharp knife. Dull knives cause a lot of cells to be smashed, which will release a lot of the smelly and irritating sulfuric compounds. Using sharp knives will minimize this quite drastically. Well, one should of course always use very sharp knives...

[pianonut]

yes, xvimbi is right!  it's a little more dangerous with the knife cuts, but you handle the onion less (only with fingertips), so you don't really get it on your hands.  when you transfer the onions to wherever - just take the side of the knife or scrape off cutting board with knife.

[xvimbi]

yes, xvimbi is right!  it's a little more dangerous with the knife cuts, ...

I personally find using sharp knives much saver than using dull knives. Dull knives cause me to slip easily. They also require a lot more strength, so any cut incurred by a slipping, dull knife is just as bad as one from a sharp knife. Avoiding cuts is of course a matter of technique. Just like with piano playing, one must have perfect technique or injury will follow Knowing about the proper movements will make things so much easier. Having good knife skills is almost like an art

[pianonut]

yes.  i hardly ever sharpen knives, but my husband and his brother are obsessive about it.  (sharpening before they do anything)  so...i try to make the knife drawer the most inconspicuous place in the kitchen - just incase there's an intruder and he gets hold of the turkey knife.  that one could be used as a saber!  also, am worried about the three year old (who often reaches high and into the draw without looking).  she thinks corkscrews are hammers and the little cutting block is her workbench.  i come home and she's hammering away. 

[Tash]

LOL this is the funniest i'm liking xvimbi's suggestions!! but that's not always possible. so i'll just go waste all my milk instead, my mum will be like what the hell are you doing, how hilarious.
in fact if people were smart they wouldn't let me use knives in the first place i'm such a klutz i'm amazed i haven't chopped my thumb off yet (though came close once when i stabbed myself with a lino cutter-that was painful)...

[Bob]

Can you cut it up while rinsing it under water?

[Tash]

i could try, but i might hurt myself...