If you are allowed near a stove in South Louisiana then you will be required at some point to cut up an onion. We use onions in just about everything we cook here in this part of the world. Onions along with bell peppers and celery make up the Cajun Trinity.  And just like you want the Holy Trinity in your life you're going to want the Cajun Trinity in your dishes.

However, prepping the "trinity" is no small feat. Sure the chopping of celery is pretty easy. I'd have to say chopping up a bell pepper is no reason for alarm either. But the onions, that's a totally different story.

Caroline Atwood via Unsplash.com
Caroline Atwood via Unsplash.com
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Perhaps the biggest issue with onions is that they tend to make us cry. It doesn't matter whether you're a tiny petite Cajun lady or a big burly roughneck of a Cajun man, if you cut enough onions you're going to shed a few tears.

Apparently, all of those tears can be avoided and you can get more onion for your dollar if you just change the way you're cutting your onions. At least one Tik Tok influencer believes you can anyway. In fact, Sonny Hurrell who can be found on the social media site @thatdudecancook believes we've all been taught incorrectly how to cut onions.

Tell me if this is how you cut your onions when you're chopping them for Gumbo, Jambalaya, Sauce Picante, or milkshake. See, I told you we put them in everything down here.

Shannon Wikle via Unsplash.com
Shannon Wikle via Unsplash.com
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Step one cut the root end and the top end of the onion. Step two cut the onion in half. Step three peel the onion skin from the onion. Step four, get to chopping as best you can in between the tears.

According to Hurrell not only do you invite crying to the kitchen by doing it that way, you actually waste about a third of the onion. Here's how the Tik Tok Onion Master would like you to do it.

@thatdudecancookI truly believe this is the only way to cut your onions in half...#tiktokfood #onions #knifeskills #cookingtips #foodie #cook #chef

♬ original sound - Sonny Hurrell

As you can see, Hurrell splits the onion long ways leaving the root tip intact. He says it's important to keep that intact because that's where all the "tear gas" comes from.

I do have to admit, as the designated onion chopper in my family I will be giving this a try. If just to make my supply of onions go further. I do think the Chef is right about the wasteful part of the "old school method". I do seem to be throwing a lot of onions in the garbage when I could be using them for other recipes.

Webvilla via Unsplash.com
Webvilla via Unsplash.com
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By the way, @thatdudecancook is a great follow on Tik Tok. He is always informative. His videos are quick and easy to digest. And, he is good at sharing information in such a way that even the non-talented in the kitchen can grasp the message.

So, here's to no more tears, at least tears from onions. We have so many other things to cry about, we don't need one more.

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To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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