Stainless steel works for me. Wet hands, some dish soap, and making sure you rub all parts of your fingers (between, too) on the stainless.

Try that alcohol based hand cleaner...the anti bacterial stuff.
I hate waking up at 3 AM smelling onion or garlic on my hands!!
Linda C

I'll try the steel again for tonight: I can smell my hands while typing, ughhh! I need a permanent solution. If my husband is home I ask him to chop the onions but this often does not work out. I need the answer once and for all.

Linda, which alcohol-based hand cleaner? The orangey-yellow antibacterial cleaner you see everywhere I'm allergic to (the tricoslan or whatver is in it).

You know maybe I'll try straight rubbing alcohol, I have a bottle.

When I was at the kitchen store a few weeks ago I saw the metal object shaped like a bar of soap and it said it would remove onion or garlic smell from your hands.

I usually don't have too much touble with onion smell but when I do I wash my hands with dog shampoo and it works wonderfully.

Michelle

I use laundry detergent if dish soap won't get rid of the smell. First clean under your nails with a file or orange stick in case there is any residue there. Then lather up with the detergent, use a nail brush to scrub under the nails and around the nails. Let the detergent sit for a minute or two then rinse off. This always works for me. Also works for garlic, fish, and gasoline. I use all free and clear since that is what I use for laundry.

If your hands are really dry after cleaning them, rub on your richest hand cream and put on a pair of white cotton gloves before bed. If you don't have gloves, slip a pair of cotton socks over your hands. In the morning your hands will feel soft and smooth!

No steel, but stainless steel. Just use some SS forks or spoons.

For tough odors (like skunk), use a paste of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda.

And, surgical gloves really really work! When you remember to use them. Get the expensive ones that are right and left handed. Much more comfortable then the either hand kind and they cost about $15 for 50 pair.
Linda C

Here's another solution, use a chopper & you'll never have onion scent on your hands : )

Lucy

Here is a link that might be useful: chopper

Lucy, I got one of those chopper things as a Christmas gift exchange item. Mine was useless. Not sharp, it just mashed the onions.

Some suggestions on Spanish websites recommend rubbing your hands with stainless steel, or lemon, or a handful of salt, or a ripe tomato. Another person just suggests holding both hands under a heavy stream of water from the tap for a couple of minutes so the water enters the pores of your skin. That works, says the person who posted the suggestion.

I don't worry about my hands as the smell just seems to be gone by the time I've finished washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen.
And over here everyone seems to smell of garlic and onion, so we don't notice it anymore LOL.

SharonCb

Barnmom,
Your right, not all choppers are equal. I happen to have the Pampered Chef chopper & works just fine. However, I use it mostly for larger amounts, but for one onion, it isn't worth cleaning.

However, I cut & dice onions and my hands barely touch the wet onions. Could be in the knife, I always use a large one. The technic used? poster doesn't mention how she goes about it.

I've seen another gadget w/multiple prongs evenly spaced that you pierce a hafted onion, & slice in between the prongs, then cut in the opposite direction for a chopped onion. May solve the problem of not touching an onion all together.

As mentioned, the SS does work to remove odors.

Don't know where that came from, sorry... : (

I rub my hands along the stainless steel faucet at my kitchen sink to remove onion and garlic smells. It seems to work and its certainly convenient.

Looks like a lot of people are using stainless steel. Thanks for your suggestions. My pan lids are all stainless steel so I always have those. Had not thought of using a spoon! That "metal object shaped like a bar of soap" I saw in the store too: read the label to find it's just a block of stainless steel. That's where I got the idea of using SS in the first place. I guess I just wasn't thorough enough. I did it again last night and it seems to work but it took a long time. (Actually I can still smell it a bit now) When I have to do this I'd better be using a milder hand cleaner. The one next to the sink is fine for a quick hand wash but it's too harsh for the number of hand-washings I did yesterday.

I have a chopper, but like some of you said, "when it's just one onion...!" I use my food processor if it's a lot. It's always the left hand that gets smelly because that's the hand holding the onion down while the right uses the knife. I always do them the same way: cut off the ends. Peel. Cut onion in half stem to root and lay each half cut side down on the board. Cut down through, knife running stem to root. Hold onion together and then cut perpendicular to the first cuts. This is the way we were taught in Chinese cooking school long ago: the chef said that with no cut sides of onions facing up, the fumes would not then cause tears. It usually works for that. I use a japanese style knife that has a tall blade (from cutting surface to spine) that is barely curved on the bottom: forgot what they are called. Right hand usually does not touch the onion much.

I can vouch for the pampered chef chopper. It works great (but is a pita to clean.)

JO

The antibacterial soap works for me too. Diana55

To get the smell of onions and garlic off your hands is this: wet hands with cold water and sprinkle hands with salt. Rub the hands together till salt dissolves and hands are slippery. Then rinse with cold water. Works like magic but only if hands are wet with cold water first. If hot water is used, run cold water over hands before sprinkling with salt

When I was a dishwasher as a teenager, I remember rubbing the chef's hands on the stainlesss steel prep tables to get rid of nasty odors. I never get onion smells on my hands. I use a rotary chopper for even one. I'm very sensitive and if I try to use a knife and cutting board, I cry. Even if I put them in the refrigerator or use lemon juice on them. The chopper is only a pain to clean if I don't use the dishwasher. I tryed using the immersion blender once, talk about onion mush! Yuck!

I hit submit instead of refresh preview. I remember the chefs rubbing THEIR hands on the tables.

Bobby, you need these!

Here is a link that might be useful: Onion goggles!

Seems like this would really slow me down.

Here is a link that might be useful: Onion holder.

They make everything now, don't they!?

That onion holder would be useful for about 20% of the chopping operation. I almost never just slice! I'd still have to hold the onion with my hand for the rest of the time. I'll try the salt trick next time (and then the other ones). The morning after using the stainless steel, I could still smell the onion. The antibacterial soap I can't use. Gives me odd little blisters under and around my nails. It's almost always orange so now I avoid any soap I see in a public place that's orange.

I have chopped or sliced so many onions in my lifetime, I don't cry when I do them any more.

I'm another one for using stainless steel. Rub a stainless steel spoon on your skin, under running cold water. Works best if you do it right after cutting the onions or garlic so that the oils don't have a chance to absorb in your skin.

Guilty of stroking the gooseneck faucet here too, it works.

Try squeezing a little lemon on the cutting surface before starting to cut the onion. It seems affective in reducing the tears when chopping onions.

I agree with the rubber gloves -- may not be the 'greenest' solution out there, but I use them all the time for chopping and mixing meatloaf etc. My hands get so dry in the winter that constant washing just kills them.

Also, some may laugh, but I received the 'as seen on TV' Vidalia Chop Wizard, and I have to say that, for the most part, it really works well. I use it mostly for onions and as long as you keep the size of the onion manageable, it chops it perfectly.

As far as the original question, I've had good success with baking soda and lemon juice.

According to this url "http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq112300.html"; this is all an old wives tale about the SS and onions/garlic.
I got one of these bars and after testing by rubbing my hands with garlic, then using this in comparison to a good soap, I dont really see a difference with the SS at all.
I'm a very sceptical person by nature, if you want to prove something to me, show me the science behind it.
So off to find the science I go, but still to this day I cannot find any valid scientifc theory/test/evidence behind SS and removing odor.

My my question now is, does this really work, or do we just choose to believe it does and take our minds along for the ride?

Any comments/info is welcomed, I'd love to know how this works if it really does.

Cheers

Sheldon