I am interested to know the views of people who dislike cucumbers specifically on account of their flavour. There is method to my madness, as I will explain below, but in short - if you don’t like the taste of cucumbers, please could you try to describe that taste by comparing it to other things?
I will spoiler my reasons, just to try not to pollute the results, but this is not a science experiment, so if you want to read it first and then agree/disagree, that’s also OK.
My reason for asking is that: as of about 6 months ago, I suddenly found cucumbers to taste very strange - I used to like them (as much as one can like something that is fairly neutral in flavour) and they always tasted, to me, just like watermelon, but with less sweetness.
Now, they have a peculiar stale flavour that I would liken to leather or old books, or leather-bound old books. Library vegetables.
Nothing else has changed in my perception of taste or aroma, so either cucumbers have changed, or I have, but only with regard to cucumbers. So I want to know if anyone else perceives this same stale taste as I do.
One comment; the photo shows cucumbers sliced into disks but with the skin still attached. Do people eat them like that? We’ve always peeled them first.
I don’t particularly like cucumbers- they taste like you said, a lot like watermelons, only less sweet, and with a sort of floral note I don’t like.
That said, I don’t hate them, and can and do eat them in tzatziki, pickles, and some types of potato salad. I just generally try to avoid them otherwise.
Ever since I switched to Japanese or Persian cucumbers, I’ve never peeled them. The skin is tender and tasty.
Yep, cucumbers taste like watermelon rind. I don’t dislike it, but they’re a bit bland. So I salt them and make simple pickles, either sweet or savory.
Don’t really like them so I’ll work around them in a salad but there is so little flavor there I don’t really care if I eat one or not. They’re for appearance as far as I’m concerned. I take a fork and dig ridges lengthwise down the outside before slicing (sometimes called taking out of round). That gives them a little more interesting appearance.
I find cukes rather flavorless and don’t care for them. Not really flavorless, but maybe I find their flavor a bit jarring. I don’t like watermelon so if the taste is similar to watermelon rind, I’m not surprised I don’t care for it. However, I do know that on a hot, hot day, flavor or not, they can be quite refreshing. I don’t know why.
The cucumber in the photo is what’s sold here in the US described as English or sometimes seedless or perhaps both. They’re almost always sold individually wrapped in shrink packaging, probably because the skin is so delicate (?). They’re not rare or hard to find but they are less common than the thicker skinned, more seeded ‘regular’ cukes I’d expect to find in a side salad or a salad bar or available at, say, Subway.
I don’t know if this is exactly related, but a few years – maybe four – ago I had to give up eating raw cucumbers. Not because of the taste, but within a half hour of eating even just a couple of slices in a salad I would start burping madly. Over and over, for maybe an hour or two. Up until that point in my life I’d always liked them fine.
Note: pickles don’t bother me at all. Even ones that are only ‘pickled’ by being put into a vinegar solution for an hour or two before eating.
I’ve assumed that it’s Yet Another of the unhappy changes getting old can bring, but maybe they have developed slightly different cucumber breeds with more of something that bothers my stomach.
I like cucumbers. I also like cucumber-infused water, and I recently made a cucumber-infused gin that I was quite pleased with, and that was well-received by the friend I made it for. I like the little Persian cucumbers best, and generally peel half the skin, leaving alternating stripes of skin and no skin.
Raw cucumbers have always made me burp. (As well as raw peppers, and too some extent raw tomatoes.) I don’t like the flavor, but it’s not a bad flavor; it just reminds me of the discomfort to come.
I hate cucumbers,but love pickles. I also don’t mind some sliced into a tzatziki sauce, as long as it doesn’t taste like cucumber.
Why? The taste and smell are terrible. I also can’t stand melons of any kind. I was cashier at a grocery store when I was 16, and would gag if someone placed a melon on the conveyor. Just the memory of the smell did it, but I’m better now.
I’m pretty far from a fussy eater. If it’ll hold still long enough to catch it’ll probably go down my hatch and I’ll probably like it. Same for plants, but they’re even easier to catch .
But cukes are a bland sort of annoying with the flavors @bump describes.
I pick almost all of them out of a restaurant salad and cut what remains into very small pieces so not too much cuke-ness gets into any forkful. Conversely I enjoy tzatziki and actually enjoy the sorta tangy freshness the cukes add. I can’t really reconcile those two thoughts. Taste is weird.
My attitude to cukes and my perception of their taste has not changed since I was a kid eons ago.
I love cucumbers, in moderation. Maybe it’s because my mom always put sliced cucumbers in her salads so it’s become an entrenched taste. They’re great when fresh and crisp, and sliced thinly so they’re not overwhelming. Also, one of the better grocery stores here makes a great cucumber salad, consisting only of thinly sliced cucumber, dill, and some sort of light creamy dressing – don’t have any right now so not sure of the exact ingredients. I usually make a sort of mutant Caesar salad consisting of the usual romaine lettuce, croutons, bacon bits, maybe anchovy, but also cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes, with a garlicky strong Caesar dressing.
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