Lemon cucumber
Cucumis sativus · Fruit vegetable
Top 10 pairings
The lemon cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a round, heirloom slicing cultivar named not for any citrus flavour but for its looks — a tennis-ball-sized, pale-yellow fruit about the size and colour of a lemon, lightly freckled with fine prickles when young. Its thin, tender skin and sweet, mild, almost never bitter flesh make it a favourite of home gardens and farmers' markets, eaten whole and unpeeled like an apple.
Picking a good onedrag
Field firmSoft and yellow
Shop freshBuy itFirm and green — anything a cucumber does
SkinEven green, taut
FleshFirm, springs back
Cut endDry scar, firm around it
SmellClean, faintly green
These cues are Cucumber's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
97%
Edible part
216 g · ends trimmed
223 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
Long below 10°C, it pits and collapses. Four days chilled is fine if you use it straight after.
95%
Humidity
Still
Airflow