Myrl wrote on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:26:47 -0000:

MJ> On Oct 18, 6:52 pm, Terry > wrote:
??>> After chopping up onions, I tried storing the left over in
??>> a clear Tupperware bowl and a lid.
??>>
??>> After a day in the fridge they seem to have a stronger
??>> taste? Can this be avoided?

MJ> I only chop onions as I'm working with a recipe. However,
MJ> I have a large family that comes home on holidays, and I
MJ> usually will do all my baking, and the chopping of onions,
MJ> celery, peppers, etc. on the day before. When I do this, I
MJ> usually use plastic Ziploc bags, squeeze to get most of the
MJ> air out and refrigerate until the next day's cooking.

MJ> There are two reasons I do the onions the day before.
MJ> Usually on holidays I have enough irons in the fire without
MJ> getting into a lot of prep work. Also, I cry a lot when I
MJ> chop onions (yeah, yeah, I know about the water trick), and
MJ> it makes my mascara run, and my eyes red, just when all
MJ> those holiday pictures are going to be taken. Once I tried
MJ> wearing my swimming goggles, but the imprints from the
MJ> rims, made the most unusal pictures of me, you'd ever wish
MJ> to see;-)

I think I have seen chopped onions, or at least sliced, for sale
in the meat compartments of my supermarket so some people will
do a lot to avoid working with them :-) I find one of those
onion choppers using a grid is fast enough to avoid a lot of
irritation. I can also understand storing large quantities of
prechopped ones in sealed bags but I would not freeze them if
texture is important.

You can't always buy onions of the size you want, like say
"medium onions", so storage of unused portions can be necessary.
(I don't do it but would discarding unused portions cost all
that much?) Tight wrapping in plastic seems to work quite well.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not