Unusual 'milking' hack can make your cucumbers taste so much better: 'I don't feel right anymore'
If biting into a particularly bitter cucumber has ever given you trust issues, this new kitchen hack is for you.
TikTok user BasicallyPerkfect showed her followers how “milking” the vegetable can make it taste better.
@basicallyperkfect milking a cucumber?##healthheroes##kitchenhacks##cucumber##fyp
She said she learned of the trick when her sister-in-law said she was going to “milk” a cucumber while preparing a vegetable tray.
“I was like: ‘Excuse me?'” she said. “I know most little tricks and I had never heard of that.”
She explained that “milking” is quite easy — you just have to cut the ends off before rubbing them against the cut part of the vegetable in circular motions.
BasicallyPerkfect demonstrated the trick herself, showing her followers the white, milky substance that built up as she rubbed the pieces together.
Credit: TikTok/BasicallyPerkfect
According to Oregon State University vegetable breeder Jim Myers, that bitter, white substance is called cucurbitacin.
It is mainly found in the leaves, stems, and roots of cucumber plants, but it can spread to the fruit itself.
TikTok users were surprised to learn of the hack, to say the least.
“I’ve learned more from TikTok videos than all of high school and college,” one user said.
“Currently adding cucumbers to the grocery list so I have something to do this weekend,” another wrote.
Others were a bit unsettled.
“This makes me so uncomfy,” one user wrote.
“I don’t feel right anymore,” another said.
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