Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Saber Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2: And I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we have a classic
Speaker 2: for you about cucumbers.
Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, and we did this one a little bit ago.
Speaker 2: Yes. This was originally published in June of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Yes. And before I ask you if there was any
Speaker 1: reason it was on your mind, I have to say
Speaker 1: I often think of one thing when I think of
Speaker 1: this episode, and it's that our super producer Dylan Fagan
Speaker 1: really does not enjoy cucumbers, and due to circumstances, as
Speaker 1: it happens, he's the one editing this classic this week,
Speaker 1: as other super producer Andrew is having a nice vacation hopefully.
Speaker 1: And I when I saw this, I laugh, I laughed loud. Lord.
Speaker 2: I picked it before Dylan, before I knew Dylan was
Speaker 2: signed on.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Dylan, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: If it makes you feel better. They make me so gassy,
Speaker 2: so I cannot enjoy them either.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love them. I've been I've been making bunch
Speaker 1: on caw yeah, and I've been using them in a
Speaker 1: I've been making spring rolls a lot lately.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they taste lovely my guts cannot handle them.
Speaker 1: That's a real shame. It is. So you both are cocktails.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm mad about it. Yeah, that's true. You're both
Speaker 1: in two different versions of a cucumber purgatory. Almost. You
Speaker 1: can't enjoy them because of your guts. Dylan can't enjoy
Speaker 1: them because he does not like them.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, well, uh, what a lovely human to be
Speaker 2: stuck in a cucumber purgatory.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, indeed, But uh, they.
Speaker 2: Were on my mind because you know, like we're getting
Speaker 2: into the warm months where like a nice refreshing cucumber,
Speaker 2: if you enjoy that sort of thing, would be so nice.
Speaker 2: And also like we are counting down to people who
Speaker 2: grow cucumbers having a lot of cucumbers on their hands.
Speaker 1: Oh that's true, and that means like fresh pickles. Oh
Speaker 1: my rash. My mom makes this like summer relish with cucumbers.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2: Friend of the show, Ramsey makes beautiful homemade homemade pickles.
Speaker 1: Yeah they are so good. Wow.
Speaker 2: Well, well, at least one of us here daydreams about cucumbers.
Speaker 2: I suppose we should let former Annie and Lauren take
Speaker 2: it away.
Speaker 1: Hello, I'm welcome to foodstuff I'm Annie Reach.
Speaker 2: And I'm more in vocal bomb, and today we're talking
Speaker 2: about another thing I shouldn't really eat.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're making our bad habit of it's it's okay.
Speaker 2: The list is long.
Speaker 1: We're talking about cucumbers. Cucumbers and not pickles.
Speaker 2: Not no, not pickles. Oh my goodness. We have a
Speaker 2: pickle guest WETI works.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so a pickle episode is forthcoming, absolutely, but
Speaker 1: it is not this one, not today. No, today is
Speaker 1: the cucumber. And I wanted to include a quote, a
Speaker 1: quote of the episode right at the top from Samuel Johnson.
Speaker 1: A cucumber should be well sliced and dressed with pepper
Speaker 1: and vinegar, then thrown out. That's good for nothing.
Speaker 2: Dang right, that is that is some strong words about
Speaker 2: a cucumber. You know, I don't feel that strongly about cucumber,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 1: Know I don't either, And I have to say I
Speaker 1: am someone who does have a lot of like theatrics
Speaker 1: in me and a lot of enemies as you mind.
Speaker 1: Be sure, Yeah, that's a lot even for me, like
Speaker 1: to put something, make a dish out of it and
Speaker 1: just be like so spiteful. Aha, I'm gonna throw you
Speaker 1: out at the end of this.
Speaker 2: It's a lot, it is. But you know, I'm sure
Speaker 2: Sherry had his reasons.
Speaker 1: He did, and we're gonna talk about them later. They're
Speaker 1: pretty excellent. Nevertheless, we're gonna we're gonna unpack all of
Speaker 1: that stuff. Yeah, starting with the cucumber. What is it.
Speaker 2: Well, cucumbers are the fruit of a flowering vine. And yes,
Speaker 2: they're technically a fruit, not a vegetable, super technically or botanically. Rather,
Speaker 2: they are a berry. But yeah, there are many different kinds.
Speaker 2: But your basic cucumber is oblong, with a relatively thin, bitter,
Speaker 2: dark green skin, encasing like very pale green flesh, which
Speaker 2: is in turn encasing just a whole bunch of seeds.
Speaker 2: The flesh is watery and crunchy, and the seeds are
Speaker 2: small and kind of soft and edible, and the whole
Speaker 2: thing tastes fresh and green and cool and a little
Speaker 2: bit savory or bitter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're both.
Speaker 2: The Latin name is Cecumus sativus, and they're fairly closely
Speaker 2: related to melons, pumpkins, cords, and squash.
Speaker 1: Yes, and there are many, many, many types of cucumbers,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, including not actually including the scored in cucumber.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about it. I want to know
Speaker 1: what it is, but it's it's not a cucumber, so
Speaker 1: not within the purview of this episode.
Speaker 2: It's like vaguely related. It looks sort of like a cucumber.
Speaker 2: Does it scort you when when it's ripe it injects
Speaker 2: its seeds? I mean, it's it's a vegetable, but when
Speaker 2: it gets very ripe, it just ejects its seeds like violently.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Am going to have a good laugh about that later.
Speaker 2: I you look like you're having a good laugh about that.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm struggling to contain myself the jokes I
Speaker 1: want to make. Oh yeah, but we must move on.
Speaker 2: We yes, we must, sally forth, we must.
Speaker 1: There are yes, many many types of cucumber, from the
Speaker 1: pickling cucumber like Curby or Liberty, to the Japanese and
Speaker 1: Mediterranean varieties.
Speaker 2: Their skins range from smooth to bumpy to outright spiky,
Speaker 2: and can be yellow to green, to striped or speckled
Speaker 2: with both, and can be either completely edible or unpleasantly
Speaker 2: bitter and fibrous. On average, they can range from two
Speaker 2: to forty inches that's about five to one hundred centimeters
Speaker 2: in length, and weigh anything from two ounces to nine pounds.
Speaker 2: Nine pounds that's like fifty grams to four kilos. Wo. Yeah.
Speaker 1: English cucumbers can grow up to two feet long a
Speaker 1: little underimeter and are seedless and therefore sometimes marketed as burpless.
Speaker 1: Apparently the seeds give some people. Guess we'll touch on
Speaker 1: that a little bit late.
Speaker 2: Absolutely m hm.
Speaker 1: Cucumbers typically are categorized in one of two ways, slicing
Speaker 1: or pickling. Slicing cucumber are eaten straight from the garden
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your cucumbers from, and generally have smooth,
Speaker 1: spine free skin and can range in length from four
Speaker 1: to twelve inches. Pickling cucumbers, on the other hand, are smaller,
Speaker 1: like one to five inches, and their skin is bumpier
Speaker 1: and or spinier.
Speaker 2: Oh. One thing in addition to squirting cucumbers that is
Speaker 2: not technically a type of cucumber is a gurkin. Oh really,
Speaker 2: and okay, this is about to get what I consider
Speaker 2: completely unnecessarily complicated. Botanically speaking, Gurkins are other fruits of
Speaker 2: viny plants in the Cucurba tasi family, the same as cucumber,
Speaker 2: and they resemble cucumbers in flavor or appearance, for example,
Speaker 2: the cucumus and guria, the West Indian gurkin, and the
Speaker 2: mellow Thria scabra, the Mexican sour girkin. That's botanically. Culturally speaking,
Speaker 2: gurkin is either a botanical girkin that has been pickled,
Speaker 2: or a small pickled cucumber of any kind. Some people
Speaker 2: just pickle a cucumber and call it a girkin because
Speaker 2: they resemble at things that are gurkins, and gurkins resemble
Speaker 2: cucumbers anyway.
Speaker 1: So I think that's why I've been confused.
Speaker 2: I it's confusing, It really is, it really is. So
Speaker 2: that's fine, right.
Speaker 1: Etymology wise, the origins of the name is fairly straightforward,
Speaker 1: from the Latin cucumberan. Then the old French maybe or
Speaker 1: maybe not, took that and turned it into cucumbra, and
Speaker 1: then that jumped to English because it's pretty close cucumbra.
Speaker 1: Or perhaps it straight up came from y Cliff's first
Speaker 1: English translation of the Bible, in which the cucumber gets
Speaker 1: name checked more than once, huh. Or it could have
Speaker 1: been both, but generally that's a that's a simpler story
Speaker 1: than we're normally telling.
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely right. Yes, cucumbers are an annual plant, meaning
Speaker 2: that you have to plant them anew each growing season
Speaker 2: from seeds or transplants, and they will grow flour fruit
Speaker 2: and then die off. Yeah. Grow either bush like along
Speaker 2: the ground or can be trained up trellises or other
Speaker 2: standing objects, fences, whatever you want. And the plants generally
Speaker 2: have both male and female flowers, but some have been
Speaker 2: cultivated to have a majority of one or the other.
Speaker 2: Either way, they don't self pollinate or wind pollinate because
Speaker 2: they're pretty sticky. You need insects, probably honeybees to do
Speaker 2: that for you, Our good old friend, the honeybe I know.
Speaker 2: In big agriculture, cucumbers are harvested mechanically, like the whole
Speaker 2: plant is just pulled up and sent for sorting. They're
Speaker 2: fairly delicate, and it's considered best to hand pluck them
Speaker 2: from their vines. The ones with thin skins come shrink
Speaker 2: wrapped in order to prevent water loss along the way,
Speaker 2: which is why if you've seen an English cucumber shrink wrapped, Oh,
Speaker 2: there you go. They don't want it to otherwise it
Speaker 2: would dehydrate like a sponge.
Speaker 1: Tidal idea, the thin skinned cucumber. Ooh, all right, I
Speaker 1: like it. This is part of my process, everybody. If
Speaker 1: we're looking at nutrition, I've often heard of cucumber referred
Speaker 1: to as a quote negative calorie food, meaning the calories
Speaker 1: you expend on digesting it are more than the calories
Speaker 1: you get from eating it. Yeah, probably not, didn't find
Speaker 1: anything to back it up, but a half cup will
Speaker 1: run you about eight calories and they are ninety five
Speaker 1: ninety six percent water.
Speaker 2: Side note here, there are no scientifically rigorous studies that
Speaker 2: prove that negative calorie foods are an actual thing. I mean, like,
Speaker 2: throughout the day, about five to ten percent of your
Speaker 2: energy goes into digesting foods. But eating negative calori foods
Speaker 2: isn't going to give you enough nutrients to like live on, right,
Speaker 2: So I mean, you know, if you like them, then
Speaker 2: eat them, and we could all use more vegetables and
Speaker 2: fibers things in our diets. But please, please please ignore
Speaker 2: people who try to sell you on like negative calorie eating. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's I mean, if you're going to go negative calorie,
Speaker 2: that should be done through a combination of diet and exercise.
Speaker 2: Don't just do it through food. No, probably consult a doctor.
Speaker 1: Yes, always. We are not medical professionals. Nope, nope, nope.
Speaker 1: But whatever the case, they are healthy. Yeah. They have
Speaker 1: potassium and vitamins AB six C and K fall eight, magnesium, siamine, phosphorus, copper,
Speaker 1: and manganese. I did read somewhere that it was kind
Speaker 1: of like a judgy It was a weird judgy statement,
Speaker 1: like the cucumber is healthy, but it's not that healthy.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay. It was strange in the context of
Speaker 1: what it was written in because it wasn't just like
Speaker 1: some comment that nobody yeah, like no blowjo or whatever
Speaker 1: made It was in an article about cucumbers. I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting. In twenty ten, we produced fifty seven
Speaker 1: point five million tons of cucumber around the world. As
Speaker 1: of two thousand and five, China accounted for sixty percent
Speaker 1: of that, followed by Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the US
Speaker 1: the largest cucumber well, last I checked, I'm not regularly
Speaker 1: checking these things. The last I checked, it was one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty four pounds or what are about seventy
Speaker 1: four kilos and sixty seven inches long or one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy centimeters.
Speaker 2: That that cucumber is like way bigger than me.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a weird thought. That's a weird.
Speaker 2: Thought, like I could comfortably fit inside that cucumber.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know, you'd be so cool, cool as a cucumber. Perhaps,
Speaker 1: I keep thinking of pickle Rick. Oh yeah, but if
Speaker 1: he would, if he had been that size, he would
Speaker 1: be like a human size.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's this is going to come back later.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, absolutely right.
Speaker 2: Okay, but Rick, aside for the current moment or the
Speaker 2: current moment, we're going to get into the history of
Speaker 2: the cucumber. But first we're going to get into a
Speaker 2: quick word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: Back, thank you sponsor. The cucumber got its start in
Speaker 1: ancient Asia, probably around India and the Himalayas, where it
Speaker 1: had been cultivated for at least three thousand years. Early
Speaker 1: cucumbers produced more cucurbitisens than most of our modern varieties.
Speaker 1: And this is a bitter compound that the cucumber makes
Speaker 1: to keep those pested away. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't taste good, taste like toxic.
Speaker 1: Stay back, stay back, don't eat me. Please more on that. Yes,
Speaker 1: cucumber's got to mention in the legend of Gilgamesh, and
Speaker 1: was on the product list of the ancient er in
Speaker 1: the Sumea region of Mesopotamia. As we said at the
Speaker 1: top of the show, the Bible brings up the cucumber
Speaker 1: as one of the foods freely available to the slaves
Speaker 1: in Egypt. Quote. We remember the fish which we did
Speaker 1: eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and
Speaker 1: the leaks, and the onions and the garlic. There are
Speaker 1: even stories of making a weak liqueur drink from cucumber
Speaker 1: in the early days by cutting a hole in the fruit,
Speaker 1: stirring up the insides until they were all liquidy, plugging
Speaker 1: up the hole, and then bearing the cucumber for a
Speaker 1: couple of days. I mean, if anybody wants to give
Speaker 1: it a shot, let us know how I go.
Speaker 2: Oh goodness, don't take our advice.
Speaker 1: No never. According to some sources, the peoples of southeastern
Speaker 1: Europe in areas like Turkey and Bulgaria are producing cumber
Speaker 1: around the same time as well. Whatever the case, from India,
Speaker 1: the cucumber made the journey most likely with the Romans
Speaker 1: to Europe. Ancient Romans were big fans of the crop
Speaker 1: our old pal Pliny the Elder observed that they were
Speaker 1: a popular choice for Emperor Tiberius, who was never without them.
Speaker 1: He loved them so much that they were grown throughout
Speaker 1: the year using artificial methods similar to a greenhouse, to
Speaker 1: make sure that he was never ever minus a cucumber.
Speaker 1: If he wanted a cucumber, he could get his hands
Speaker 1: on one. Roman gardeners would plant them in wooden carts
Speaker 1: so they could be wheeled out in the sun during
Speaker 1: the day and moved inside during the cold winter months.
Speaker 1: They were kept in frames or cucumber houses. They had
Speaker 1: pineapple houses, cucumber houses.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're pretty delicate, like they do best
Speaker 2: in like kind of warm temperatures. But if they drop
Speaker 2: blow like fifty, they're ruined. If they go too high,
Speaker 2: they're ruined.
Speaker 1: My little heart is like poor cucumbers, poor delicate cucumbers.
Speaker 1: Plenty of descriptions of these cucumbers more closely resemble that
Speaker 1: of wild cucumbers than what we cultivate these days. They
Speaker 1: were quite small, and of course they were used for
Speaker 1: medicinal purposes, everything from scorpion bites to improved eyesight to
Speaker 1: the medicinally tangential I guess scaring away of mice. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: women wanting to get pregnant would wear them strung about
Speaker 1: their waist. I got a very big laugh out of
Speaker 1: that at my desk. Some midwives would carry them too,
Speaker 1: and they would toss the cucumber once the child in
Speaker 1: question was born. Oh okay, I'm kind of curious. How
Speaker 1: many people do you think we're getting stung by scorpions
Speaker 1: right in this time, because it's come up more than once.
Speaker 2: That a food is good for like scorpions stings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or snake bites.
Speaker 2: Oh, so I think they're just more serious than than
Speaker 2: they are now.
Speaker 1: Like I suppose that's true. I mean a scorpion sting hurts.
Speaker 2: Or some of them are deadly.
Speaker 1: I think that's true. Just just amusings than I have
Speaker 1: about previous times.
Speaker 2: And no insecticides. Yeah, there are many reasons why the
Speaker 2: past is a terrible time to have lived, but it's
Speaker 2: I mean, like hats are basically the only good thing
Speaker 2: we could bring back.
Speaker 1: Hats.
Speaker 2: Oh man.
Speaker 1: I you know the first time I was stung by
Speaker 1: a scorpion, I was four and I put I put
Speaker 1: my my foot my shoe. Yeah, you always check your
Speaker 1: shoes oh, I learned a lesson. I feel like that
Speaker 1: should be a proverb. Always check your shoes. Always check shoes.
Speaker 1: Scorpion may lurk inside.
Speaker 2: There's a T shirt.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Back to the cucumber. As we move into the
Speaker 1: Middle Ages, cucumber first appeared in written records in France
Speaker 1: in the ninth century CE, when Charlemagne decreed that they'd
Speaker 1: be grown in his garden. Some writings from this period
Speaker 1: suggest that cucumbers were introduced to England in the thirteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: lost and then reintroduced two and a half centuries later.
Speaker 1: This is because the English had a word for cucumber
Speaker 1: translated literally to earth apple as far back as ten
Speaker 1: sixty sixtye, which suggests that at least somebody had seen them,
Speaker 1: or maybe they got the idea from the Bible. Mysteries
Speaker 1: of history yep. Catherine of Aragon is said to have
Speaker 1: liked cucumbers and her salads. I do too. Catherine of
Speaker 1: Aragon and fourteen ninety four Columbus. During Columbus again brought
Speaker 1: them over to Haiti. When French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived
Speaker 1: in Montreal, he found quote very great cucumbers. But historians
Speaker 1: think he was probably mistaken, given that they were such
Speaker 1: a new crop in the New World at the time,
Speaker 1: the time being fifteen thirty five. In fifteen thirty nine,
Speaker 1: De Soto wrote that the cucumbers he found in Florida
Speaker 1: were superior to the ones found in Spain. European colonialism
Speaker 1: introduced them to Africa, too, and as more and more
Speaker 1: trade took place between the Europeans and the indigenous peoples
Speaker 1: of the Americas, the cucumber was adopted as a crop
Speaker 1: in the New World, particularly with the tribes of the
Speaker 1: Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. Several books penned in the
Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds described cucumbers or cowcumbers.
Speaker 2: Cucumbers as they were frequently called at the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, growing in New England colonies. And I
Speaker 1: hope that can you indulge me, Lauren and listeners that
Speaker 1: if I found an expert, I'd like to read from
Speaker 1: a sixteen hundred book how to grow them in the Americas,
Speaker 1: and the double entendres just oh please, please, do, thank you.
Speaker 1: Cucumbers must be grown to an enormous length. Everybody wants
Speaker 1: to have his fruit larger than his name. And if
Speaker 1: it is so long that no dish can be found
Speaker 1: to hold it, so much the better. But is there
Speaker 1: any common sense in this of what use are these
Speaker 1: long fruits except to make people stare? Are they better bearers?
Speaker 1: Better cedars? Quite the contrary, they are simply longer, too
Speaker 1: coarse to suit a cultivated taste.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's that is? That is a lot.
Speaker 1: It is, isn't it? It goes on And I like
Speaker 1: stopped myself from reading the entire thing because it continues.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that we're both twelve.
Speaker 1: That's that's good. I hope that.
Speaker 2: I hope that you listeners out there are also twelve
Speaker 2: and enjoying that.
Speaker 1: I hope.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Physicians continued espousing the health benefits of cucumbers, and because
Speaker 1: of its high water content and retentativeness, the retentative retentativeness
Speaker 1: of the water, that's fun to say, cucumbers were thought
Speaker 1: to never lose their cool and that's a quote. Because
Speaker 1: of this, patients with fevers may be treated by a
Speaker 1: laying on a bed of sliced cucumbers in order to
Speaker 1: become as cool as a cucumber.
Speaker 2: That usage popped up around the seventeen thirties.
Speaker 1: Right, we're still using it. Today.
Speaker 2: Right, Oh, it's great.
Speaker 1: Yes. Eating cucumbers three times daily was also believed to
Speaker 1: be a cure for pimples and a reddish nose. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The inside of a cucumber can be as much as
Speaker 1: twenty degrees fahrenheit less than the outside.
Speaker 2: And that's like out in a sunny field.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's pretty impressive. And yeah, this is why
Speaker 1: cucumbers are placed over the eyes at places like Spas.
Speaker 1: For the coolness factor in actual temperature, that's probably cool.
Speaker 1: Cool man, You probably don't look cool at all.
Speaker 2: No, not really. I mean it's but you're comfortable. It
Speaker 2: depends on your definition.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true, Lauren. However, the cucumbers public reputation
Speaker 1: soon fell to the wayside in the late sixteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: thanks in part to a growing distaste and prejudice against
Speaker 1: eating raw fruits and vegetables. This prejudice got its roots
Speaker 1: in several articles appearing in health publications claiming that uncooked
Speaker 1: produce led to disease, was little better than trash, possibly poisonous,
Speaker 1: and should not be fed to children. One article signaled
Speaker 1: out the cucumber inspecific as a crop quote fit only
Speaker 1: for cows.
Speaker 2: Well maybe that's where that whole cowcumber thing comes from.
Speaker 1: That's what some historians think. A sixteen sixty three diary
Speaker 1: had this entry on the matter. This day, Sir W.
Speaker 1: Batton tells me that mister Newhouse is dead of eating cowcumbers,
Speaker 1: of which the other day I heard of another. I
Speaker 1: think cucumber's. Cucumber's poor reputation hung around for quite a
Speaker 1: while until the nineteenth century. A company that comes up
Speaker 1: a lot on this show was in part to thank
Speaker 1: for the good cucumber pr and restoration of its image, Heines.
Speaker 1: Heines started selling pickles in eighteen seventy six. Other companies
Speaker 1: followed soon after, and people got on board with the
Speaker 1: cucumber again.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. During his time making their rounds through Asia, Minor
Speaker 1: Frederick Hasselquist stumbled upon the Egyptian hairy cucumber, which he
Speaker 1: described as quote queen of cucumbers, refreshing, sweet, solid, and
Speaker 1: wholesome in that they quote still form a great part
Speaker 1: of the food of the lower class people in Egypt,
Speaker 1: serving them for meat, drink, and physic interesting. By eighteen
Speaker 1: o six, there were at least eight varieties of cucumbers
Speaker 1: growing in colonial America.
Speaker 2: And they are a popular garden element to this day.
Speaker 1: They are. I think in twenty fourteen it was named
Speaker 1: the Year of the Cucumber, right, yeah, and it is
Speaker 1: one of the top five fruits. I always want to say.
Speaker 2: Vegetables, but fruit technically fruit.
Speaker 1: Yes, grown in American gardens, So it's come a long
Speaker 1: way from the cowcumber.
Speaker 2: Although I love that name, I would. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's marketing there to be harnessed.
Speaker 1: I do too, for sure. Hmm, get on that marketers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something else to be possibly harnessed to some of
Speaker 2: its medicinal powers, which are related to its burpie powers.
Speaker 1: It's burpie powers, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, and more on that after one more quick
Speaker 2: break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor, Yes.
Speaker 2: Thank you. So the burping power of cucumbers, it's true,
Speaker 2: it's true. Yes, cucumbers do make some people burp.
Speaker 1: Some people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, if you're inclined to burp, you might burp.
Speaker 2: If you're not, there's been no real scientific studies.
Speaker 1: I find that hard to believe.
Speaker 2: But there is a group of compounds in cucumbers and
Speaker 2: other related plants called cucurbiticens, which Annie mentioned earlier, and
Speaker 2: they provide some of those bitter flavor notes in cucumbers
Speaker 2: and also make some people burp. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A listener email in about this forever ago, and I
Speaker 1: think it was a very short email and it just said,
Speaker 1: do cucumbers actually make you burp? Can you look into this?
Speaker 1: And I was like, that can't be true. I've never
Speaker 1: really heard of that. But here's a quote I've found
Speaker 1: from the I think it's the Missouri University of Missouri.
Speaker 1: Non birthless types can be made a bit more socially
Speaker 1: acceptable by cutting off about one inch of the stem
Speaker 1: end and peeling the skin off the fruit.
Speaker 2: And that's true. Most of the cucumb meiticines in cucumbers
Speaker 2: are concentrated in the skin and in that tail end
Speaker 2: or that that stem end of the cucumber. But they're
Speaker 2: not just in there for like comedy effects. In nature,
Speaker 2: they do help ward off pests. Many creatures avoid better
Speaker 2: flavors because many better flavors are toxic. Yeah, which means
Speaker 2: that psychologists say that if you really like better flavors,
Speaker 2: there's something a little bit off about you.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite type of flavor Lauren Bitter. Ohh okay, cool.
Speaker 2: That mild toxicity may cause some people to burp after
Speaker 2: eating cucumber, but it could actually be a bonus in
Speaker 2: the long run. Cucre bitisins may have anti tumor properties.
Speaker 2: Oh really Yeah, because apparently they're toxic to tumors too.
Speaker 1: Makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and more more research needs to be done on
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, but I got another question. Yeah, why do
Speaker 1: they smell gross to some people?
Speaker 2: This is something I'd never heard of me either, Like I,
Speaker 2: like I have have lots of experience with the with
Speaker 2: the great debate of whether cilantro is delicious or tastes
Speaker 2: like soap. Yeah, and that's a genetic thing, it is.
Speaker 2: This is also a genetic thing. The compound phenyl thio
Speaker 2: carbamide or PTC, which is a much nicer thing to
Speaker 2: say out loud, either tastes like super bitter or basically
Speaker 2: like nothing at all, depending on your per genetic makeup.
Speaker 2: The specific gene that creates the physical shape of the
Speaker 2: taste receptors to either be able to detect this or not,
Speaker 2: or something a little bit in between, was identified in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three. Oh wow, Yeah, okay, okay, okay, but.
Speaker 1: Why are cats so dang scared of cucumbers?
Speaker 2: All right? This is a matter of some debate, but okay,
Speaker 2: either A cats think their snakes at first, okay, oh
Speaker 2: good guys, sure? Or B if you plunked basically anything
Speaker 2: unexpected down behind a cat, especially when it's just been eating,
Speaker 2: it's going to be startled.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: I mean like if someone quietly snuck behind you while
Speaker 2: you were eating dinner and left an object there that's
Speaker 2: about half as tall as you and as thick as
Speaker 2: your leg, what would you do when you got up
Speaker 2: and turned around.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm easily startled, But okay, this is giving me
Speaker 1: an idea because there's a guy out where I'm very
Speaker 1: easily startled.
Speaker 2: Is I basically cannot approach her desk without startling her? Yeah,
Speaker 2: which I constantly feel bad about but also giggle about
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a like people can slowly approach with their
Speaker 1: hands up in like a surrender I mean no harm position,
Speaker 1: and I will like jump back into the wall.
Speaker 2: That's literally what I usually do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but there's a guy at work who likes to
Speaker 1: prank me. He likes to scare me, he likes to
Speaker 1: startle me. He sits, he stands. We have standing desks
Speaker 1: across from me. Uh, Chandler, Chandler. And I think I'm
Speaker 1: going to just put a cucumber behind him because it's weird.
Speaker 1: It won't scare him, it's weird.
Speaker 2: See, I was picturing as I was writing this, I
Speaker 2: was picturing Pickle Rick. I was like, what if like
Speaker 2: an enlarged version of Pickle Rick was just standing behind you.
Speaker 1: Oh, that would scare me.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, when you got done eating, I'd be real scared.
Speaker 1: Pickle Rick is terrifying.
Speaker 2: I love Rick and Morty. I never want to meet Rick,
Speaker 2: especially not in pickle format.
Speaker 1: No fun fact, I would say that was the most
Speaker 1: popular costume Dragonconn last year.
Speaker 2: Oh goodness, yeah, I saw a really good one.
Speaker 1: Pickle Rick's abound.
Speaker 2: But anyway, cats and cucumbers don't. Don't do that to
Speaker 2: your cat man. Don't do things to your pets to
Speaker 2: startle them on purpose. It's impolite. I mean, and I
Speaker 2: know that cats don't have a concept of rudeness. Actually
Speaker 2: they do. They're heck and rude, they totally do. But
Speaker 2: but they don't understand the humor in the situation. And
Speaker 2: it's just stressing them out. Be nice to your pets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, always be nice to your pets. Chandler, however, has
Speaker 1: it coming.
Speaker 2: Chandler is way less innocent than a cat.
Speaker 1: So I can't wait to do this. I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: We'll need to film it, Okay, yes, And that brings
Speaker 1: us to the end of this classic episode. We hope
Speaker 1: that you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing
Speaker 1: it back. And oh, if you have recipes, pickle recipes, whatever,
Speaker 1: please let us know.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, well and let Annie now they're they're
Speaker 2: they're useless to me.
Speaker 1: Don't don't let lord know. This will be our our secret.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: I do have one, uh correction kind of so all right.
Speaker 2: So in the beginning of this episode, uh, we talked
Speaker 2: about extraordinarily large cucumbers and uh, I'm not sure where
Speaker 2: your source on the biggest cucumber, which which was the
Speaker 2: University of Missouri Environment and Garden magazine. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: where they got their numbers, but they were much larger
Speaker 2: than what I could find. Because in preparation to do
Speaker 2: this classic, I was like, I should see if someone
Speaker 2: has grown a bigger cucumber. This is obviously my journalistic duty,
Speaker 2: but I couldn't find anything even close to that size. So,
Speaker 2: according to Guinness, which is not to be fair, the
Speaker 2: be all end all of records, but I couldn't find
Speaker 2: competing records. There are separate categories for or longest cucumber
Speaker 2: and heaviest cucumber. The record for the longest was set
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two by a man in the UK.
Speaker 2: It measured three feet eight inches or one hundred and
Speaker 2: thirteen centimeters, and the record for the heaviest was set
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, also in the UK, and it
Speaker 2: weighed twenty nine pounds eight ounces or thirteen point four kilos,
Speaker 2: so smaller than the numbers originally reported, but still really impressive.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm always so interested in these records because sometimes
Speaker 1: I wonder if clearly people purposely set out to do them. Well,
Speaker 1: the people, I'm wondering if they're just sitting on a
Speaker 1: record and they don't know, Oh sure, who knows what
Speaker 1: world of records were missing out on?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think with a lot of these it is
Speaker 2: a very purposeful. Yes, you know, I've read about the
Speaker 2: regimen of watering and feeding that people put these vegetables through.
Speaker 1: It's like a montage of training montage. I do have
Speaker 1: to say, if anyone has any insight to this, I've
Speaker 1: actually seen a horror movie about its surprise surprise. I
Speaker 1: bought a pumpkin in October. I didn't carve it because
Speaker 1: I was sad. It looks great. It looks like I
Speaker 1: bought it yesterday. It's a huge conversation piece every time
Speaker 1: someone comes over there.
Speaker 2: Like where did you get a pumpkin?
Speaker 1: It is April, and I'm like, oh, no, I bought that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's fun. If anyone has any thoughts.
Speaker 2: That I last year, I had one last like into
Speaker 2: the summer, and then it very suddenly kind of.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm worried about. I keep like checking it
Speaker 1: for good. I didn't. I did not. If we talked
Speaker 1: about that in our pumpkin our recent pumpkin short about
Speaker 1: how you should properly dispose of pumpkins if you can,
Speaker 1: and so I'm trying to make I'm trying to do
Speaker 1: it correctly, but also it's doing well anyway, Listeners, if
Speaker 1: you have grown any of an interesting an interesting crop
Speaker 1: of note, let us know, and yeah, any recipes send
Speaker 1: my way. Yes, you can email us at Hello at
Speaker 1: savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2: We are also on social media. You can find us
Speaker 2: on Blue Sky and Instagram at saver pod and we
Speaker 2: do hope to hear from you. Savor is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you
Speaker 2: can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 2: listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
Speaker 2: super producers Dylan Fae again and Andrew Howard. Thanks to
Speaker 2: you for listening, and we hope that lots of more
Speaker 2: good things are coming your way