Why You Might Hate Cucumbers, Explained

When I worked in the EatingWell test kitchen, just about everyone had one or two foods they didn’t like. One coworker despised shiitake mushrooms, describing them something akin to slimy slugs, and another painfully forced down tofu, no matter how crispy or flavorful. Sure, we were all well trained in the culinary arts and we love food deeply, but there are simply things we just don’t like to eat. Any time a recipe came up for testing and tasting that included one of our collectively dreaded ingredients, we had to be mindful of our opinions. I also had trouble navigating certain recipes as there is one very common ingredient I avoid to this day.

I like to think I’m an adventurous eater who loves food so much that I made it my career, first as a line cook in fancy restaurants, then culinary school and now as a food writer and recipe developer. The confession I have to make, however, is there is literally only one food I truly detest, and that’s cucumbers. Yup, the staple of the summer garden and the backbone of creamy tzatziki, the basic cucumber turns my stomach so strongly that I can’t stand to even smell those gross green things.

A Family Aversion

The cucumber comes from the Cucurbitaceae family of plants, which comprises gourds and melons, including squash, pumpkins, zucchini and watermelons. The vegetable is incredibly popular worldwide, and it has seen a steady increase in production over the past couple decades or so. Here in the U.S., the growing popularity of salads and snacking cucumbers has led to a serious increase in demand, and as of 2022, cucumber production spans 105,647 total acres.

While in theory, I get cucumber’s popularity, it’s just never been for me. I have a strong aversion to it. So much, in fact, that the smell alone can turn my stomach. And it turns out this aversion runs in my family. My grandfather, who we affectionately called “PopPop,” loved all food, though he greatly preferred the components of a meal on his plate to stay in their own place (he said it was from his time in the military). But he, too, couldn’t stomach cucumbers. PopPop, and my grandmother, actually exposed me to lots of different foods as a kid, taking me out to nice restaurants to try oysters, lobster or duck.

It runs even deeper than my grandfather, however. PopPop and my grandmother had 16 grandchildren, and I recently learned that one of my cousins hates cucumbers, too. When we both found out we shared this hatred of cucumbers, it was like discovering we loved the same small indie band that no one else had ever heard of or we liked the same quirky straight-to-video movie. It was a relief, actually, to know I wasn’t alone in my dislike of all things cucumbers.

A Pickle of a Theory

Technically this aversion to cucumbers could be genetic. Afterall, there are (or were) a few of us with the same bloodline that hate cukes. Perhaps the most common genetic aversion is related to cilantro. Some people have a specific gene variant that makes cilantro taste soapy. Cucumber aversion could come from the TAS2R38 gene, which makes some folks highly sensitive to the bitter compounds in vegetables. I’m not sure this lines up for me and my cousin, and my late grandfather. Cucumbers don’t taste bitter to me, they taste like garbage—literally, cucumbers taste like degrading compost or the bottom of a wet bag of trash.

I truly want to like cucumbers. They grow so well in our garden, I love sushi (it’s embarrassing asking the chef to make me some without cucumbers) and Greek cuisine is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, every year I commit to trying a bite of one freshly picked from our garden. My daughters think it’s so funny because it’s like this ritual where every summer I plug my nose, pop a slice of cucumber into my mouth and proceed to gag and spit it out.

There is one way I can eat a cucumber and actually enjoy it and that’s pickled. Yup, I love pickled cucumbers. But they have to be very pickled. If they are simply marinated in a bit of vinegar and spices, then it’ll taste too much like a cucumber and I’ll have to spit it out. And those trendy cucumber salads with chili oil? Nope, I can’t stomach them.

Another Offender

I can probably count on one hand the foods I’ve tried that I don’t like. Even if I don’t love something (I’m not partial to water chestnuts or sundried tomatoes, for example), I’ll still eat it politely. But there’s a close relative to cucumbers that I sometimes can’t stomach. Watermelons are in the same family as cucumbers, and while the bright red flesh tastes sweet and delicious, the closer I chew down into the greener portion, the more it tastes like cucumbers to me. An unripe, pinkish-fleshed watermelon has a flavor so similar to cucumbers that I find it incredibly gross.

Without fail, next summer I will again happily grow a wide variety of cucumbers in our garden. My daughters will pick a ripe one off the vine, peel off any bitter skin, add a pinch of salt and watch as their dad tries in vain to overcome this aversion. At this point, fully middle-age, I doubt there is a time I’ll pop that slimy piece of hot garbage into my mouth and actually enjoy it. Perhaps someday I’ll overcome this aversion to cucumbers, but until then, I’ll just stick to pickles, thank you very much.