[me_again]

Marco Pierre-White recommends grating onions, which ingeniously avoids the entire issue.

Grating the Gordian knot, if you will.

https://youtu.be/glIUUrh6qtQ?t=40

[tptacek]

He grates for a tomato sauce, which makes sense, but you wouldn't want that as your default onion cut.

[account42]

Is there really a default onion cut? Desired sizes vary vildly depending on what you are making.

[akira2501]

This is the MPW way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBj9H6z6Uxw

"Perfection is lots of little things done well."

[account42]

It avoids the issue except for the remaining bit which you can't grate without risking your fingers.

For garlic, I prefer crushing them for many recipes. This creates much rougher outlines that blend better into the food and crisp nicely when fried.

[tdeck]

At that point why not just grind them in a food processor?

[account42]

That's going to end up with a slush of onion fibre + onion juices. Very much different from even small bits of cut onion. Some recipes call for blended onions though.

[marcopw]

“You can grate the onion, or not, its your choice really”