The poison in cucumber peel

[e***@gmail.com]

Back when I was a young lad, mother used always to peel those green salad
cucumbers with a knife, then score the entire outside of the peeled fruit
lengthwise 8 or 9 times with a kitchen fork "to drain the poison".
Perhaps due to my continual probing of her as to where the poison drains TO
(there is never any exudate to drip off the peeled fruit), mother gradually
eased up on the vigour with which the fruit was scored with the fork. And
wonder of wonders, none of us died or even got sick because of it. Eventually
the ritual fork scratching fell by the wayside altogether.
Now, she does not even peel the fruit - it is simply washed and sliced.
Can any other reader relate to this myth of the cucumber poison, and/or
suggest where it might have had its basis?
In recent years this puzzle has resurfaced to once more occupy more than a
passing thought as I keep hearing personal endorsements of what is referred
to here as an environmentally friendly cockroach bait: fresh cucumber peel.
Is any reader able to confirm that cucumber skin deals death to cockies?
-JS-

I have been eating cucumber at least twice a week for the past 10 years and i never have a sore throat.
I never peel the skin. I was taught by a Chinese friend to cut off about 10mm of the top-end section (the darker green side) and rub against the it. You will see some white serum or juice coming out and then washed it away.
out.

[p***@gmail.com]

Back when I was a young lad, mother used always to peel those green salad
cucumbers with a knife, then score the entire outside of the peeled fruit
lengthwise 8 or 9 times with a kitchen fork "to drain the poison".
Perhaps due to my continual probing of her as to where the poison drains TO
(there is never any exudate to drip off the peeled fruit), mother gradually
eased up on the vigour with which the fruit was scored with the fork. And
wonder of wonders, none of us died or even got sick because of it. Eventually
the ritual fork scratching fell by the wayside altogether.
Now, she does not even peel the fruit - it is simply washed and sliced.
Can any other reader relate to this myth of the cucumber poison, and/or
suggest where it might have had its basis?
In recent years this puzzle has resurfaced to once more occupy more than a
passing thought as I keep hearing personal endorsements of what is referred
to here as an environmentally friendly cockroach bait: fresh cucumber peel.
Is any reader able to confirm that cucumber skin deals death to cockies?
-JS-

Cucumbers have bitterness in the skin and seeds. Most of it has been breed out now a days, but everyone seems to think it's poisonous (it isn't a bad assumption about plants) but it isn't. The peeling and scoring or cutting the ends off and rubbing, until the foam is gone, remove the bitterness, as does adding salt and letting it set. I've found that I can taste the bitterness only at the ends when they aren't rubbed, but I've eaten a cucumber hole without cutting it, and just not eating the very end where it would have connected to the vine, because the texture is hard, and it has not been bitter.

[d***@gmail.com]

peeling is a good idea to avoid pesticide exposure. so is washing with
soap (not detegents), as most pesticides and their inert ingredients
(eg solvents) are fat soluble. none of this helps for systemic pesti-
cides, where the poison is brought into the plant.

Most sources I've read agree that washing fruit, even with soap and a scrub
brush, does virtually nothing to remove residual pesticides. In your
argument above, you seem to be indicating that soap will remove the
pesticide because it is fat soluble. If it is fat soluble, then I imagine
it will be taken into the cell membranes of the fruit where no amount of
scrubbing in the world, short of peeling the fruit, will remove it.
Yasha Hartberg
Texas A&M University
"Whether they ever find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be
considered an enemy planet." Jack Handey

Use baking soda to clean almost 98% of all know pesticides from veggies and fruit. Google it!

[p***@gmail.com]

I was told scoring cucumber and leaving it in the fridge over night removes laudanum