I've been a chef for 25yrs, I live in the uk, I was trained only to cut onion using root to stem be it slice or dice. Reason being because the root to stem method gives you slices that will be 99% the same size, so when it comes to cooking it will cook evenly, unlike orbital rwhere the slices are differant sizes meaning uneven cooking. When it comes to taste, I've never found one to be stronger in taste but it does make a differance with what onion you use . Yellow Onions Yellow onions are your go-to cooking onions. This onion has yellow skin and a strong flavor due to its high sulphur content, which mellows out during cooking, becoming sweet and flavorful. Its ability to hold up to heat makes it great for caramelizing and roasting. 2. Red Onions Red onions are subtly sweet and mild enough to eat raw. The vivid magenta color of their skin makes a great addition to salads and salsas. If you find the flavor too strong when raw, try soaking them in cold water before using. 3. White Onions White onions have a white papery skin and mild flavor that makes them easy to use in salads and sandwiches. Although they are similar to yellow onions, white onions are sweeter and cleaner in flavor. 4. Sweet Onion Sweet onions are larger than yellow onions, with a light skin. As the name suggests, sweet onions have sweet flavor due to a high sugar content, making them great for sauteing and caramelizing. Sweet onion varieties include Walla Walla, Texas Sweets, Maui, and Vidalia. 5. Shallot A shallot is a member of the allium family, closely related to onions, garlic, and chives. Whether diced, minced, or slivered, shallots are used for seasoning dishes, either with a soft onion undercurrent or a pop of sharp acidity similar to a hint of garlic. They can also be used to brighten vinaigrettes. Their flavor is milder and more delicate than that of a regular onion (though they can usually be used in place of white onions, and vice versa). 6. Scallions Scallions,Spring onions,salad onion ogreen onions, are fresh young onions identified by their slender shape and mild flavor. The white stalk has the same sharp, sulfur-y taste characteristic to all alliums, albeit with less bite, while the dark green leaves have a fresher, grassy flavor. When just harvested, scallions give off a strong onion smell that’s noticeably bright and earthy, with notes of garlic and apple.
@ willow Eley Thanks for the info, your comment is more helpful to me as a home cook than the basis of the video. I can see the bias that the creator has in the video, which I think is about one's onion slicing preference. I've also cut onions both ways and don't notice a change in flavor. However, how you explained the different types of onions with some of each type's unique descriptions is actually helpful in determining what type of onion to use for a particular dish. I cut my onions whichever way is simpler (usually pole to pole) or in the way what the dish calls for (ex. for onion soup, one can slice pole to pole, where as for onion rings it must be orbital.) The one tip I've found useful for cutting onions is to cool the knife blade and onion by running them under cold water for a few seconds before cutting. It helps keep the onion from releasing too much of the thing that makes one cry and it washes away any dirt that may have been transferred from the peel via one's hands. I haven't cried over onions in a while since using this method. It could be a placebo, but it works for me. Besides, I don't usually cut huge batches of onions as a commercial chef or sous chef may do.
Thank you for the rundown. I never understood the use of shallots, so thank you for the explanation. I grew up in a family that hated onions because of how the sulfur taste leeched into everything (eyes, cutting boards, even some cooking equipment), but I think that's because they all did nothing but orbital cuts. I left the house and slid right into a Pakistani household... onion everywhere. I noticed that they used pole to pole and I have done it ever since... it's crazy how much of a difference it makes.
Pole to pole cutting is called “Lyonnaise” style. From the Lyon region of france, considered the gastronomic capital of traditional French cuisine. One can do what they want of course, but the Lyonnaise way of cutting onions is for when you want to have the onion forward in the eating experience. The against the grain cut is useful for most types of cooking as you are generally wanting the juices out of the onion as well as wanting the onion to somewhat disintegrate into the dish. Cutting pole to pole or Lyonnaise style for everything is something an inexperienced culinarian would do thinking something is “better” because it is lesser known. The cuts have their purposes.
If you want the juice / disintegrate the onion, wouldnt it be easiert to just cut them into small cubes? Thats what I do 95% of the time when I use onions and want them to 'give some flavor' to the dish
I was going to post something similar. I didn't know the French teem for it though. Different dishes can go from well that was food and i wouldn't mind eating it again to that was great food and I will make it again by little details like this. I look at it this way, if you want the onion to add lots of flavor but accent the chew without being to forward in it, cutting across the grain (orbital) is the way to go. If you want the flavor more forward in the chew and the onion to be an experience in the chew, with the grain (pole to pole) is the way to go. Of course there are pracyical limitations like raw onion on a sandwich and when you want a diced onion but an easy example would be the difference between fajitas and stir fry. Grandma had an onion soup recipe where she used both. It was one of those all day soups but she started with orbital cuts and finished with pole to pole. The orbital onions basically carmalized and melted away creating a rich broth with no meat added and the with the grain onions added later kept their structure giving a meaty texture to the chew. I think she only added water- no broth. It was in the 1970s to mid 80s since the last time I had her version so it may be just nostalgia but I think it was the best I've had.
For the longest time, when I was first married, I cut the onion Lyonnais style and I honestly didn't understand why my onions never came out cut evenly lol. Then I started slicing them the other direction, and I don't think I've found a reason to use them Lyonnais style since. Can you suggest a dish that you'd want to use the onion flavor forward, as you said?
next time you do this kind of experiments it would be better to eat them blind to reduce the risk of preferring one over another due to your preconceived notions on what's better, otherwise great video!
With these videos my main goal is to get across the theory and understanding of what's going on with the food. I want home cooks watching these to understand what a specific technique or method is trying to achieve. I keep it simple so they can test it themselves to see if it's worth doing in their home kitchen or they can take my opinion on what I prefer and I try to be very clear on this is what I like in the tests that I've done in my kitchen. For example, even if say 7 of 10 people preferred pole to pole sliced onions in a pickled onion blind taste test preparation that doesn't mean we all have to cut our onions that way. I may like, you may like it, and then our buddy may go "Ethan, orbital is way better, what are you talking about!", which is perfectly fine! That being said, I think it would be fun to work in some blind taste tests with multiple people like that as supporting evidence but it's tough to coordinate when I'm a one man show. I'll see what I can do in future episodes as we progress!
“This one smells like onion” “This one also smells like onion” There you have it folks it is now officially confirmed that onions do in fact smell like onions, you may rest easy now.
My question is this. You went into all these experiments biased and knowing which was which. You obviously had a preference towards the pole to pole cut going into these. I would like to see what would happen as far as preferences if you blind taste tested 2 to 3 unbiased and blindfolded participants.
@@SmokedHam444 I think it’s a given when watching any video that there will be some sort of bias. Maybe the point of his video was just to explain why he thinks root to end is a better technique. It’s just what he believes to be true and you’re free to accept or challenge his opinion. A blind test would have been nice thoe
@@eoghanmyers2330 Sure, but as a viewer, it’s our responsibility to discern whether or not something is an absolute truth or an opinion (which most videos on youtube are). And it’s. it like he’s giving out bad advice.
As a chef we use both. Depends on what I'm making. Sliced onions for pepper steak pole to pole cause it holds its shape better sliced onions for frying orbital.
Same as I mainly like onions raw on burgers so I love the strong crispy oniony taste. For other stuff that require red onions I might try this as I had to wear goggles last time I cut them lol 😅
@@YeshuaKingMessiah To add texture without adding too much onion Flavour? When you use them raw When you do not want them to completely desintegrate in a Dish
It will still taste like onions lol. He reiterated that multiple times in the video. Pole to pole(known as Lyonaise) cuts simply create a less pungent and off-putting onion flavor and may have a better texture in the final dish.
The one good thing (for me) about orbital cuts is that I can use the root end to hold the onion together while I am cutting it. I am less able to get consistent cuts pole to pole because the layers start to come apart and are slip slidin' away.
Something I usually do is keep the root end on while slicing pole to pole, neaaaarly slicing all the way but not quite- and then as a last step cut off that root end
I was always told that leaving the root on and cutting it orbitally actually helps with the tearing up. It makes more sense about the cellular alignment though.
@@annaku_eatswieners_ahaha well if you're using a knife and cutting bored, you're normally doing "pole to pole". Have you never cut an apple for a child?
Like Tom and Jessica said, leaving the root on helps! That’s how my dad taught me to chop onions and it’s very useful. They stay together until I’m ready to release them from their rooty prison.
Just some small feedback, it was kinda confusing when ‘orbital’ was on the left and then in the next cut it was on the right and vice versa; thanks for the great content, though, as always!
I’m a chef at a restaurant. Knife skills are very important I learned. The irritations in your eyes is because you cut the root off the onion. If you don’t and you leave it on. It’s 1. easier to peel. 2. Doesn’t leave you crying like a baby. Also remember to have a very sharp knife. That helps dramatically. No need to change the rotation of any onion to stop crying.
Theres no need to leave the root on either to stop crying. Your better off leaving it or cutting it depending on what sort of cuts you want to make. Chefs either tell you they dont cry because they leave the root intact or that it doesnt matter. I think you'll find if you prep onions every other day you build tolerance anyways. You want to assert that the direction you cut doesnt matter yet ironically believe cutting into the root pole to pole is fine but cutting it off orbitally isnt.
great video, i get it with pickled onions and i definitely will try caramellised onions your way, but I really love that "wormy" almost non existing texture. In my opinion raw orbitally sliced onions on burgers provide a better texture because they chew through easier and keep the integrity of the burger stable for longer. and for the stronger taste there are a lot of different types of onion for a very good reason
My dad saw me slice orbitally, took the knife from me and taught me pole to pole. He worked as a sous chef in a New York restaurant back in the early 80s, so naturally I never questioned him. Now I know why.
Doing all your experiments in a non-blind fashion (i.e you know which is which when you're smelling/tasting) really introduces your biases in, especially when you clearly had an "i want pole to pole to be better" agenda for the video
I would trust this video more if he did blind tastings, instead of knowing already which was which and - more importantly - which he would use 95% of the time.
@@red-dm1tl that's fair. But I think a blind test would still help with supporting his case. If he can tell that one of the two is better without knowing which he is tasting, that would feel more compelling to me.
@@Sirmooshalot I agree. Its what I criticizes him for too. He want to make a video about an interesting new take on cooking like Adam Ragusea, but fails to. Because he does research but does not innovate. The thing is, if theres secret simple trick to cooking, itd have been an industry standard. Adam's work because he invents methods specifically for homecook. He optimizes workflow for family portion cooking. And he also explains why itd not work as well in professional kitchen. Ethan presents an idea, but make very little effort to reinforce other than "It tastes better to me". It make his video very one dimensional. But i believe it comes down to skill and charisma. Adam Ragusea is a teacher. He teaches people for a living before he does youtube. Its very apparant in his video style.
@DownloadPizza but the texture on the pickled onions and the caramalised onions looked very different. How will that change how it feels when you eat it? It might be more oniony but if it feels wierd in your mouth then that takes away from the flavour overall. I never thought I'd be thinking so deeply about onions lol
@@skiddy1984 orbitallly cut onions definitely don't feel "weird" they just aren't for everyone, this is something you get an understanding for just by cooking (no ammout of video watching or listening to other people's opinions can do what cooking attentively can) thus I'd recommend anyone try cooking and cutting their onions both ways for different dishes and seeing what you personally like, end of the day good food is good food and everyone enjoys slightly different textures and tastes.
The problem isn't the orientation that you're cutting but the fact that you're cutting off the root. If you leave the root there, keep cutting until the root is all that's left then it won't make your eyes water when cutting orbital.
Best way in my opinion is to cut in fours pole-to-pole then slice in julienne, turn the stack of strip 90’, dice them. It’s a perfect brunoise cut, even if it sounds overly complicated, it’s fast and easy after you get it.
Cut the pointy end off, cut in half, slice pole to pole keeping the top in cut and then cut orbital. Watch videos of professional chefs and that is how they dice onions. Also not cutting off the top (with the wiggly bits on) seems to stop alot of the eye watering.
Only problem I’ve ever encountered slicing pole to pole is that the onion can start to fall apart. The layered “shells” are no longer touching the cutting board on both ends and could make it harder to cut? As far as raw onions go, you’re going to break the cells with your teeth while eating so I’d think the onion would taste stronger slicing pole to pole? I always slice orbital so I’ll have to try. Interesting video.
It was funny to see a specific video about this, as I adopted a cutting practice that I usually don't talk about with other cooks. I cut the onions diagonally at a 30° or 45° angle and I don't use either cut. I do the same when cutting lemons, cut at a 45° angle and noticed that when squeezing the juice comes out much more easily.
To alleviate textural differences and retain pungentcy, could orbital onions first be quartered rather than halved? Would this reduce the felt curvature while still providing aromatic punch?
I really appreciate that you show your sources, most don’t. You don’t know if what they are saying is opinion or fact. Keep showing the deep dives on the basics. Most people learning need to know the basics. Most channels don’t show the basics or show why we do what we do and why. This is why your channel is different than all the others. Keep showing people they don’t need to spend a fortune on every device. Learn the basics then safe storage. You should do a food safe type deep dive. Show the horrors of not keeping clean and organized.
Would be more convincing as a blind taste test :) (or triple sample and you pick the odd one out) because I’m not super convinced that this has as massive of an effect as purported. Good vid tho.
I never really thought about it. I’d slice pole to pole infrequently and dice for everything else. I always keep some diced onions ready and use them for everything. Sprinkle on a taco or ready to go meal prep. But then I discovered you were right. It’s a smoother flavor with depth and not sharp. Makes perfect sense due to the less damage to those cell walls. Now I keep sliced onions on hand and just use them. They are better. Thank you Ethan!
When I was a kid and daddy went out of town on business mom would make onion and mayo sandwiches and tomato soup for supper. We were so much more relaxed when dad was gone so onions became my favorite comfort food. I've never had an onion I didn't love. I cut them orbital from tip top to root and sometimes sideways and I never smell or cry from onions. I use a big sliced onion almost every day and I'm 80 years old. God bess the onion ! My partner in good food and good health !
There probably isn’t a right way. Like all things in nature, everything is a trade off. Your way probably leads to less eye irritation with a trade off for something like ease of cutting or strength of the taste. But based on the experiments he’s made, it seems like the conclusion is: it doesn’t matter much.
@@blablabla7796 I prefer the orbital cut due to the same reason he hates it, because of the wormy texture. But everyone's different, so enjoy it the way you like.
There's an additional refinement: when you cut pole to pole, you can do parallel slices or make radial (wedge shaped) cuts. For all the reasons that pole to pole is better than orbital, radial pole to pole is better than parallel pole to pole unless you're really bothered by the angles.
@@dazey8706 He's saying that when you slice an onion, you can choose to either keep the knife straight up and down along the onion (parallel cuts, this is what most people do) or rotate the knife around the onion as you go (radial - the knife blade is always perpendicular to the onion). And he's saying that rotating the knife around the onion is better, because it ruptures less onion cells than the other way, same as the subject of this video.
So just tried cutting a onion from root to stem and my mind is blown! I’ve been getting onions wrong my whole life getting wormy like texture! It’s so much better root to stem, thank you so much for this video! ❤
True and he kept the lid closer as he opened it where as he did the opposite with the pole to pole sample, like getting more aroma and accompanying effects from the orbital sample as a result
As someone who cooks alot. I use both styles depending what I'm doing. Generally, it's orbital for fresh uses and as a seasoning in soups or something where the onion is there for flavor not for appearance or structure. Pole to pole for caramelizing, sauteing, or frying, or for dishes that feature onion as an important part of the whole.
Damn. I'm so happy that I found this channel recently. Always super interesting insights in to cooking and preparing food that are actually useful day to day. Ethan is very relatable for some reason and I absolutely love that he eats the food he makes on camera. It makes everything feel that much more real.
Your Oklahoma onion burger game could use some work. You're using WAY too much beef, but I'm nitpicking. Glad to see the style getting love. There's a place in my town started by a dude from El Reno that specializes in onion burgers and they're the best thing I've ever eaten. Started making them at home and I've got it down to a science.
I allways teach this to my students, it is so important to know. Basically the onion for us its one of the most important ingredients in everything we cook and it determinate a lot of things. thanks for teach this
Yeah, that confused me. He seemed to be saying that the orbital slices resulted in a more oniony flavour… but when you’re eating them, surely your teeth are rupturing all the cells in the pole-to-pole slices?
Dude, I just recently found your channel and have been enjoying them a lot, but this one. Wow, you saved me so much trouble. I have been trying to caramalize onions for a couple of tries now with failure around the two hour mark. They'd end up dry and I'd have to toss them. I realized now because of you it's probably because I have been cutting them orbitally all my tries. Well I am in the midst of trying again and I cut them root to root and the difference is substantial. The look so much more jammy and evenly cooked.
This is madness. Up to this day i did't know there was any other way to cut an onion but orbital and I never would have imagined that there are actually maniacs who use this mysterious pole to pole cutting style. But I will give it a try.
I cut orbital and then dice, but that's usually because I want the acidity released into beef mince during browning for slow cook soup, the idea being is that it will chemically react with the fat to make for a more tender mince in the soup. Aroma is also part of the goal as well.
I'm an amateur cook but in my journey have understood that the root is the impetus of the element that makes you cry. Thus, when I cut onions I cut stem before root and don't cry. When I don't tears and burn haha. However, this vid has helped me in understanding the difference in how its cut/crosscut.
@@MarkNakib the implication of your comment is that its childish to worry about safety and safe cutting methods. Not a great look, bud. Better safe than sorry.
I am a pole to pole woman myself. I have noticed too if you cut from pole to pole you wont get those slimmy membranes from around each ring of onion that can happen when cutting orbital. I'll use orbital cuts if I do not have enough onion for the recipe at hand and need the flavor but cannot get to the store. I love onions.
Actually, I found this fascinating. Will test it out myself. Thanks for video. Well done. Never heard of this before. Those burgers sure looked good! 🧅🍔
Awesome! No idea why this was in my recommendations, but it's great and I know exactly who to share it with. Love the editing, too! Also amused by how you say "care-malized" when in my region we tend to say "car," car-malized, and yet I say "care-ah-mel" instead of carmel. Great vid!
Nothing better than a big grass fed burger with two large, thick orbital cut slices of yellow onion. The aroma and tears when biting into it are great!!!
I was always taught to call orbital cut slice and long ways shredding I think it is objectively the correct way to define them but it always let everyone in the kitchen team know what cut we needed for the dish.
It would be beneficial to use same measurements of weight for each experiment. The first experiment with onion in container to decide on the smell, it looks like there is more onion in the orbital container.
I don't use any of the elongated slices for onions. I like them in tiny cube like slices. I peal them completely then cut between the poles. Then I cut towards the pole right to left in across motion then I turn it 180 to slice in criss-cross. Then I thin I cut across like the orbital getting thin cubes. Or I will pull out my Nija smoothie and blend with 1/4 a cup of water to an onion paste if I run into someone who says they hate onions or use onion powder. But I rarely use elongated onions in my food. Most people don't like stringy things in their food.
So that means that when I’m dicing and I don’t want the tears + onion forward smell, I should start orbitally right? Because the ‘dice cuts’ are then the same as a pole-to-pole cut? 😂🧐
I never thought about that people think about how they cut their onions! If you put it in a burger for ex, you cut them into these 'rings'. And for everything else, you make little cubes out of them. Never seen it any different. (So basically first 'Pole to pole' and then 'orbital' (never heard that before either)). A whole new onion-rabbithole was opened with that Video!
I've been slicing onions pole-to-pole-but radially i.e. towards the center-for 25 years, and it's for exactly none of the reasons you've outlined here. In fact, none of these reason had even occurred to me until I watched your video just now. 😂 I cut them radially for two reasons: a) I like the tapered crescent shape that a radial cut produces. Looks great in salads and everywhere else, and b) unless it's a trick onion with even smaller onions inside, all the slices have the same basic proportions without any of the flat-edge pieces you get with orthogonal slices. I dice onions like this too because it takes advantage of the onions geometry, eliminating a horizontal cut and and producing prettier and more uniform bits.
Saw your video... though about putting tons of onion in my omelette. Proceded to cut them from pole to pole. Definitely the texture was much better. Less sooggy and more crunchy. Love it!
I slice orbitally when I need them to be cooked faster because that way, they release moisture easier. Root to stem slicing is good for preserving crunchy texture tho, which is good for Asian food
I actually never tried cutting it other than in circles. Im gonna definitely try. I must say that if you need asthetics at all - circles do look much better to my eye.
I never use big long onion strings so I usually cut them both ways. Pole to pole to cut in in half, keeping the tail intact to help the whole onion stay together, pole to pole along the ridges again, and then orbitally to dice. Even when using bigger onion pieces I do the same thing, but just do one pole to pole slice to halve it again, then orbital again.
