What Is an English Cucumber?

An English cucumber is the delicate and refined cousin of the hardy American slicing Cucumis sativus. Learn what makes it unique—and superior for afternoon tea sandwiches.

Have you ever wondered why one taxonomic group type of produce, the English cuke, is packaged otherwise from almost all opposite fruit or vegetable in an American grocery memory boar? Or wherefore these coddled cukes can toll four times Eastern Samoa much as their American counterparts? In that respect's a good reason for it, and once you'Ra in the know, you might change which variety you hand down for in the green goods aisle.

English cucumbers are sweet, svelte, straight and have few, less perceptible seeds than umteen other cucumbers. You'll also see them called greenhouse cucumbers, hot theatre cucumbers, European cucumbers and seeded cucumbers.

English people cucumbers are about a 14 inches womb-to-tomb and almost 1-1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. They're full-grown off the priming, dependent or along a trellis, to get their identifying form. They're also self-pollinating, which allows them to be grown indoors in greenhouses because they don't need bees, animals Beaver State wind to assistanc them green goods seeds and yield.

At the supermarket, you'll probably find just one type of English cucumber. At a farm stand or nursery, still, you might find varieties like these:

English Sweet Long Slim Hybrid Cucumber
English language Long Sweet Crunch Crossbred Cucumber
Heirloom English Long Telegraph Cucumber
Chelsea Prize Hybrid English Cucumber
Sweet Achiever English Hybrid Cucumber

Cucumbers aren't the lonesome farm that comes in an English sort. There are English parsnips, watercress, lavender and thyme, likewise. And English cucumbers are just uncomparable of many cukes with a body politic- or region-specialized name. Here are more or less else cucumber varieties you may have detected of, specially if you're a gardener:

Japanese cuke
Armenian cucumber
Persian cucumber
Mediterranean cucumber
Chinese cucumber
Mexican sour cucumber
Brown Russian cuke
Parisian cucumber vine

We take up completely these types of cucumbers today because populate spread them around the universe from the fruit's origins in India. If you've of all time had the yoghurt-based condiment raita, you've experienced 1 way the cucumber is victimised in Indian cuisine.

English Cucumber vs Cucumber

English Vs Regular Cucumbers Via Getty Images (2)

The American slicing cucumber is your standard supermarket cuke in the United States. Compared to an English cucumber, its skin is darker and thicker and its seeds are larger and Thomas More copious. It's usually a few inches shorter and English hawthorn be closer to 2-1/2 inches in diameter. It's a plumper, sturdier fruit.

An Terra firma cucumber tends to have smoother skin, while an English cuke's skin may be more furrowed. However, you Don River't motivation to peel or seminal fluid an English language cucumber, whereas you'll unremarkably want to take these duplicate steps with an American Cucumis sativus to improve the sapidity and texture of your lulu. These differences help explain why IT behind constitute worthwhile to compensate more for an English cuke, especially if you're highlighting the ingredient in cucumber vine recipes corresponding tea leaf sandwiches or a balsamic cucumber salad.

Some people also get American cucumbers hard to digest, thu the term "burpless" for English cucumbers.

Why Are English Cucumbers Absorbed in Plastic?

Cucumbers Sit Wrapped In Plastic Film Wrapping Bloomberg Creative/Getty Images

The quickest way to identify an English cucumber at the food market store is aside its shrink wrap. These thin-skinned fruits ask the extra protection of plastic indeed they don't get bruised Beaver State dried out in transit. Tender skin is one of the reasons English cucumbers are less bitter than other varieties. And the elastic is in lieu of the wax coating you'll often find on American language slicing cukes.