Cucumbers Then and Now

It’s been awhile since I have commented on Mrs. Child’s book, the Frugal American Housewife. It’s time to remedy that lapse. On page 18 she continues her advice for the 1830 housewife:

“It is thought to be a preventive to the unhealthy influence of cucumbers to cut the slices very thin, and drop each one into cold water as you cut it. A few minutes in the water takes out a large portion of the slimy matter, so injurious to health. They should be eaten with high seasoning.”

Now, I don’t know that I’ve really thought about the “slimy substance” before. I guess the jelly-like stuff around the seeds could be called slimy though. And don’t you wonder how the cucumber gained the reputation for being injurious to your health?

In my grandparents day cucumbers were always served peeled. Jim’s grandmother, Mertie Donoho Greenwalt said that the “peelings would kill ‘ya!” She would be appalled to see sliced cucumbers served with a rim of dark green peeling still on them.

I don’t know what Mrs. Child meant by “high seasoning,” but I know that most of the people in days gone by sliced cucumbers and onions into a brine of vinegar, salt and water. Some added sugar, but our family didn’t. For years my husband wouldn’t eat a raw cucumber, but he loved the brined ones his mother made.

Have you noticed that vegetables today that are often eaten raw would never have been served uncooked in the first half the 20th Century? Think about broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, cauliflower, and squash. Today we eat them raw as often as we eat them cooked. How times have changed!