Education:
Have you ever bought a cucumber, sliced it, and at the first bite you got a mouth full of bitterness that made you want to gag? I have. It's nasty, for real.
Well, apparently, this bitterness (called cucurbitacin) is a defense mechanism that cucumbers have to protect themselves from pests, or is secreted when it is under stress from weather, poor soil, etc. Cucumbers have a thin skin so just underneath the skin there are channels that contain this bitter substance.
Interestingly odd, huh?
By the way, you shouldn't eat bitter cucumbers ... the cucurbitacin is toxic.
Here is more information on this topic.
π₯Why Is Cucumber Bitter? Is It Safe To Eat Or Poisonous?β
π₯Why Some Cucumbers Are Bitter - and What You Can Do About Itβ
Application:
So, some of the solutions to this problem are to:
- Cut off the ends of the cucumber, where it is usually the most bitter.
- Peel the cucumber, however, much of the nutrition is in the peeling ... so this might not be a favored solutions for some.
- Then, there is milking. This removes the bitterness.
What is milking a cucumber?
To milk a cucumber you cut of the ends and then rub the cut off end and the end of the cucumber together. A milky substance appears on the end of cucumber. It's so strange, I tried it!
I rinsed off all that yuck before peeling and completing my snack.
Did I notice a difference?
Hmmmmm, naw ... I don't think so. I realized that I didn't taste it before hand so I don't know if it was actually bitter to start with. I think I was too anxious to see what happened when I rubbed those ends together.
So what's the verdict?
Based on what I found, there is no scientific evidence that milking cucumbers does anything at all.
Bummer!
It might be just the latest social media hack, however, I found in comments that people have done this in their families for decades past. So, who knows.
π₯Doctor Explains Why You Shouldn't Be Milking Cucumbersβ
π₯Does 'milking' cucumbers actually make them taste better? - It's a salad-making hack we never knew we needed.β
It seems there are varying opinions.
I guess if you get a bitter cucumber, try it. Let me know.
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