A Roundup of Cucumbers

Armenian cucumber

When most people think of cucumbers, they probably think of the dark green, waxy oblong English cucumbers that are so ubiquitous at American supermarkets. But there's more than one kind of cucumber out there — from yellow to green, and twisty to round!

Cucumbers originated in India. They were cultivated by the early Indians, the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans. Technically and botanically a fruit, they are marketed and consumed as a vegetable — just like eggplant and tomatoes. Cucumbers are commonly eaten raw in salads or with dips, but they can be cooked in curries, pickled, prepared in marinated salads, made into chutneys, and used in gazpacho.

• Lemon cucumbers are round, tennis ball-sized, and range in color from pale yellow to a yellowish-green. Lemon cukes are a heritage variety and taste especially sweet. These are great as snacks and in salads.

• Armenian cucumbers are pale green with skins that have a rough texture, are thin, and wax-free. These cucumbers have lengthwise ridges running through them. Armenian cucumbers can be very long, but they tend to twist and curl into crazy shapes. Their seeds are usually very small and almost unnoticeable, and this cucumber is "burpless." Although they look and taste very much like a cucumber, Armenian cucumbers are actually melons. Armenian cucumbers are excellent in salads and sandwiches, and can be pickled.

• Slicing cucumbers are the common waxy cucumbers we can get in the produce section of our local supermarket. The thick skins are usually peeled off as they give some people gas. Used in salads, raw vegetable plates, and sandwiches.

• Japanese cucumbers are smaller and thinner than average cucumbers, dark green in color, with thick, spiky skins. These are traditionally used in maki sushi and Japanese pickles.

• Persian cucumbers are small seedless cucumbers perfect for snacking as they are finger-sized. Their skins are thin and burpless, and do not require peeling. They are also good when pickled.

• Pickling cucumbers - these short, fat cucumbers have less seeds than most cucumbers, and thin skins streaked with various shades of green. Sometimes they have nubby bumps alongside their bodies. These are the traditional cukes used for making dill pickles.

(Images: Kathryn Hill)

Comments (7)

I love Armenian cucumbers! We tried them for the first time last year. They're great producers--we had tons. The skin is very thin, so if you're a person who removes the skin from "regular" cukes, this would be a winner for you.

I love to slice them up, and top them with cream cheese, half a cherry tomato, salt and pepper. YUM.

I grew Asian cucumbers this from Terratorial Seed and have had a ton, we've been eating them in salads and wraps and have made several batches of pickles with them already. I think they are probably the same as the Japanese cucumbers you mentioned, they have spikes but they wash off easily.

Here are is the pickle recipe if anyone is interested, very simple and tasty!
http://driedfigsandwoodenspools.blogspot.com/2010/06/pickles.html

Great timing! My cucumbers are coming in and up until a few days ago, I thought that I only planted a plain old slicing cucumber. However, I have ended up with this one tangled up with it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/4772332394/ A quick search led me to believe it is a Suyo Long cucumber or Japanese cucumber! I am definitely going to apply your recipe to them.

Oblong must mean something different in the US than it does here in the UK... I've never seen a rectangular cucumber!

There are 2 types of short cucumbers available here in Estonia:

The one with many thorns
http://koster.ee/koogiviljaseemned/kurk/luhikesed/polonez.html

This type is used in salads but is always peeled.

The one with few thorns
http://koster.ee/koogiviljaseemned/kurk/luhikesed/sremski.html

This type is most often used for homemade pickled cucumbers (see recipe below)

Then there's the English cucumber in full and half length. Those are smooth, dark green and used most often in salads and sandwitches.

Pickled cucumbers - the classic Estonian recipe:

Note: About 1,5-2kg cucumbers are put into one 3-litre jar. Basically you add as many cucumbers as fit without cutting them smaller. Calculate based on that the other ingredients. It's usually based on feeling & each jar tastes a bit differently, but that's the charm of it.

per 2 kg cucumbers use approximately:
1-1,2L water
30-40g salt
20-30g sugar
30-40g vinegar (30%)
15g dill (with stalk & blossom the whole fullgrown dill plant)
20g blackcurrant leaves (can be mixed or substituted with sellery-, parsley- or horseradish leaves or more exotic ones like cherry leaves, estragon/tarhun, basil, lovage, hyssop)
a little bit garlic (a couple of cloves per jar)
black or red pepper corns

you may add some horseradish, some mustard seeds etc.

Preparing the marinade:
1.boil water, add salt and sugar
2.remove from heat, skim the foam off
3.add pepper, leaves, dill
4.cover the pot and let it sit for 10-15 minutes
5.then add vinegar

Putting it all together:
1. Wash the cucumbers and leaves very thoroughly
2. Prepare the marinade
3. Into the bottom of each jar add some of the dill and leaves (fished out from the marinade), 1-2 crushed garlic gloves and a bit pepper
4. Add cucumbers (as vertically as possible, you can add a few smaller ones on very top horizontally too)
5. Add the rest of the currant leaves and dill
6. Pour in the hot marinade

7. In order to make the jars germ free put the filled but still open jars into hot water (in a larger pot one by one for example) so that only topmost 1-2cm / 1 inch is out of water. Do not let the marinade inside the jars to start boiling. 1-litre jars should be heated like this for 15 minutes in 75 C water and 3-litre jars for 20 minutes in 80 C water.
8. Then immediately lid them.

9. After lidding turn the jars upside down and let them sit/cool down for 10-12 hours (my mom wrapped them into a woollen plaid during this time so that they'd cool off slowly).

Should keep in cool and dark cellar/pantry over winter. When opened eat in 2-3 days.

If marinade turns milky/unclear then either the lid isn't hermetically sealed, there's too little salt or vinegar. Garlic & horseradish are to be used very sparingly because they can add unwanted sidetaste when heated. Too many dill seeds in marinade may make it more sticky so it's wiser to fish them out.

@CanaryLiz - glad to see I wasn't the only one imagining something like those cuboid melons grown in glass... :D

I wish there was a picture of what an 'english cucumber' is, though! The ones my (english) mum grows look a bit like the smooth-with-bobbles 'slicing cucumber' picture; the ones you get in the shops are different again, paler and ridged.