At first glance, you may think, what’s the big difference? Let me answer your question with a question of my own: do you care about the flavor of what you put in your mouth? If the answer is no, then by all means slice your onions any which way But if the answer is yes, consider this: onion cells are not perfectly symmetrical—they’re longer in the pole-to-pole direction than in the orbital direct Hence the direction you slice your onions will affect the number of cells you rupture and thus the amount of lachrymators that are formed We know that some amount of this stuff is desirable: it makes your onions taste more oniony, your stews taste more meaty, your French onion soup sweeter But too much can be overwhelming To see what difference it made, I split an onion in half, slicing each of the two halves in different ways, then placed the onion slices in identical covered containers and let them sit for 10 minutes on the counter before opening them and taking a whiff There was no doubt that the orbitally sliced onion was stronger, giving off the powerful stench of White Castle dumpsters and bad dates When cooked into a recipe like a sauce or a soup, orbitally sliced onions also have an inferior texture—they come out tougher and wormy With rare exception, I use pole-to-pole-sliced onions for all applications Dicing an onion is a task you’re going to do many, many, many times, so you’d better get used to it ... each of the two halves in different ways, then placed the onion slices in identical covered containers and let them sit for 10 minutes on the counter before opening them and taking a whiff There... let them sit for 10 minutes on the counter before opening them and taking a whiff There was no doubt that the orbitally sliced onion was stronger, giving off the powerful stench of White Castle dumpsters and bad dates When cooked... orbitally sliced onions also have an inferior texture—they come out tougher and wormy With rare exception, I use pole-to-pole-sliced onions for all applications Dicing an onion is a task you’re going to do many, many, many times, so you’d better get used to it