The Cucumber; from India to England and Beyond
A walk through the garden, or even the produce section of your grocery store will almost always find you passing a display of cucumbers. This fruit, yes fruit, it falls into the same category as tomatoes; is such a fixture today that we all have eaten it, have seen it our whole lives and pass it by with relative disregard. Instead of passing the cucumber I got curious, so this week I’ve taken the time to do a little homework into the cuke.
The English cucumber did not start in England, or even Europe. Going back, its roots can be traced to India. Slowly working its way west trade eventually caused the cucumber to enter the culinary cupboard of the ancient Greek and Roman empires. As with anything overly popular with the Romans, it spread quickly. After the fall however the cucumber fell into relative seclusion until Charlamagne repopularized it in 8th century France. The cucumber was first introduced to England in the 14th century, and reintroduced in the 17th. The traditional English cucumber was a product of extensive selective breeding on the part of farmers.
What we know and love as a cucumber today was far from what its’ predecessors would have been. The small, tough and cankerous gourd was estheticaly unappealing by today’s standards but as with most things edible those who tended to the crops saved seeds from the most desirable fruit to replant the following year. The taste of a cucumber has certainly been transformed as well. Originally some varieties tasted rather bitter and again, over time, the most appealing flavoured varieties were favoured slowly creating the cucumber we know today.
When an item becomes so engrained in a society its story and origins often get lost to time. A cucumber is not exotic, rare or particularly interesting. This summertime staple has been mixed into a number of different salads, some dips and dressings (tzatziki) and even a sandwich or two, ever heard of a cucumber sandwich. One of the strangest uses found for the cucumber is as a breath freshener; apparently the phytochemicals help in reducing bad breath.
For a food item often overlooked the cucumber certainly has an interesting past. An English staple by way of Rome, Greece and originating from India has made its way into many common dishes today thanks to some careful selection and cultivation by farmers of yesteryear. Hopefully next time you pick up a cucumber you stop and remember, if only for a second or two, how much history this watery, mild fruit has.