If your fresh, peeled cucumber tastes somehow bitter, the next time you should change the peeling direction, also for health reasons.
Bitter substances in vegetables such as radicchio, chicory or in tart grapefruit are quite healthy.
In cucurbits, which also include zucchini and cucumbers, they have no place and can lead to nausea in large quantities.
However, cucumbers and cucumbers are still edible if you use a simple method to get rid of the bitter taste.
Peel cucumber: If you start at the wrong end, it will be bitter
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Peeling is a matter of taste, because there is usually nothing wrong with eating the cucumber peel.
© Addictive Stock/Imago
Usually, bitter substances are bred out of supermarket cucumbers.
But sometimes you resort to the notorious exception to the rule or prefer cucumbers from your own cultivation.
The so-called cucurbitacins are responsible for the bitter taste in the vegetables and naturally accumulate at the end of the cucumber stem.
These substances are not entirely harmless to health and can cause gastrointestinal intolerance.
The Thuringia consumer
advice center therefore advises
peeling the cucumber from the base of the blossom to the end of the stem, so as not to spread the bitter substances over the whole cucumber.
You should also cut off the bitter end of the stem more generously than usual.
You can find even more exciting garden topics in the regular newsletter of our partner 24garten.de.
By the way, you don’t have to throw away the cucumber peels right away – if you put them under your eyes for ten minutes, they are said to reduce dark circles.
If the skin of the cucumber is not bitter, the
Federal Center for Nutrition (BZfE)
recommends eating it, because it contains the largest proportion of vitamins, minerals and fiber in cucumbers.
Instead of peeling them - unlike potatoes - you should only wash them thoroughly.
An exception here are stewed cucumbers, whose skin is quite hard and bitter.
Unless you're serving them filled out of the oven, you should always peel them.
If you grow cucumbers yourself, you can prevent bitter substances with seeds that are free of bitter substances, less fertilizer and the right watering.
Rubric list image: © Addictive Stock/Imago
