Your cucumber can be bad when it becomes soft, squishy, wrinkled, smelly, moldy.
How can you tell when cucumbers are bad?
If you start to see any wrinkles or dents in it, then it's a sign that the cucumber is old and most likely gone bad.
You may also notice come discoloring of the skin.
A sure sign of a bad cucumber is visible mold.
If a cucumber is moldy, do not attempt to cut off the moldy bit and eat the rest.
To get rid of the bitterness of a cucumber you can do so using 2 different methods.
The 2 ways of getting the bitterness out of a cucumber include.
1. Rubbing the Ends
This is one of the most popular and commonly used methods to remove the bitterness of cucumber.
All you need to do is thinly cut off the last part of the stem or blossom end of the cucumber and with that piece rub the end of the cucumber in a circular motion.
While you do this, a white foam-like substance will emerge from the inside of the cucumber.
This is the cucuritacin, which causes bitterness in it.
Repeat the process on the other end by cutting the edge of the stem.
Once you are done, wash the cucumber with water. You can definitely feel the difference.
2. Salt Sprinkling Method
The salting technique is not very popular; however, it is believed that it works wonders.
Cut the cucumber into two halves lengthwise.
Sprinkle some salt on both the halves from where they were cut open and rub them against each other.
You will see the white foamy substance appearing on both the halves.
Repeat the procedure two-three times before washing it off with water.
The only real way to tell if a cucumber is bitter is to slice the cucumber and taste it.
Cucumbers most often become bitter when grown too long or because of heat stress but the bitter cucumbers are safe to eat.
You can still eat a bitter cucumber as there's nothing harmful about a bitter cucumber.
Bitter cucumbers are safe to eat.
The actual cause of bitterness in cucumbers and other gourds, like zucchini, is due to a compound known as cucurbitacin.
This compound is always present in cucumbers, but the levels change based on the growing process of the vegetables.
The higher the level of cucurbitacin, the more bitter the cucumber.
Nothing is harmful about eating bitter cucumbers although you may not enjoy them.
Cucumbers that have become bitter are still safe to eat although it might not be as tasty as non bitter cucumbers.
You can sometimes get rid of the bitterness in the cucumbers by thinly slicing off both ends of the cucumbers and rubbing once piece against the bitter cucumber.
I do this sometimes when I have bitter cucumbers and it does get rid of the bitterness in cucumbers.
You can safely eat the cucumbers though even when bitter but I recommend doing the above to get rid of the bitterness for a better tasting cucumber.