hothouse cucumbers
This is another posting in my series about fruits and vegetables, all using information from Russ Parsons’ book, How to Pick a Peach. Cucumbers, although available here in So. California all year around, are at their peak this time of the year.
What I Learned:
  • It took centuries of breeding to get what we know today as an edible cucumber.
  • Wild cucumbers (from the Himalayan foothills) were impossibly bitter. They’re all part of the Cucurbit family.
  • Basically the flesh of all cuke varieties is the same. It’s the skin that’s different, and the fact that one or more varieties are grown with no seeds (the supposedly burpless, hothouse type). They are grown in “cucumber convents,” so that bees can’t pollinate them, which would create seeds.
  • News to me is that recent studies have shown that it isn’t the seeds at all that cause indigestion. Actually, it’s the bitterness in cukes that causes the indigestion part. That bitterness is mostly in the skin and around the stem. Remove those and you have mostly a burpless cuke.
  • The hotter the weather, the more bitter the cucumber.
  • Georgia and Florida grow about half of the cucumbers we eat, followed by Mexico. [Mine were grown here in California.]
How to Choose & Store:
  • Moisture loss is the biggest problem for a cucumber, so select ones that aren’t shriveled or wilted. If you buy the greenhouse type, cut off what you need and leave the rest sealed in its plastic cocoon.
  • Seal tightly in a plastic bag.
  • Use them quickly.
Parsons included two recipes in this chapter: Cucumber Gazpacho (some stale bread, cukes, sorrel, garlic and yogurt) and a Cucumber, Beet and Feta Salad.
 
I’ve only posted one recipe using cucumbers – a recent one – for Cucumber Soup. And it’s a really good one, given to me by my friend, Jackie. That’s what made me think of this – I have two large hothouse cukes in the refrigerator now and need to make another batch of that soup. It’s so refreshing since we’re having hot weather here in Southern California.
  
My mother used to make a simple pickled cucumber - in a refrigerator container she’d put in some water (let’s say about 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup), some cider vinegar (maybe 1-2 T.), a sprinkling of sugar (probably about 1 tsp). She’d taste it and adjust it for sweet/sour balance, add some salt and pepper, then pile in the thinly sliced, peeled cucumbers. The liquid needs to cover the cukes. They would sit, refrigerated, for several hours or overnight having been stirred around a couple of times the first several hours.  If you happen to have dill weed (not seed), throw a bit of that in there too. My dad could just about eat his weight in those. My DH adores these, and I forget to make them. Adding Splenda instead of sugar works just fine.