Woman shows how to 'milk' cucumber in viral TikTok to remove bitterness

Hack removes compound called cucurbitacin

Woman shows how to 'milk' a cucumber (TikTok)

A kitchen hack TikTok has gone viral after claiming “milking” a cucumber can remove bitterness from the vegetable.

This week, a woman who goes by @BasicallyPerkfect shared the hack on the video-sharing platform, where it has since been viewed more than 1m times.

According to the woman, who is from New Orleans, Louisiana, she learned the trick from her sister-in-law, who said she was going to “milk” a cucumber while slicing up vegetables for a veggie tray.

“I was like: ‘Excuse me?’” she said. “I know most little tricks and I had never heard of that.”

However, according to the woman, the trick actually works to remove bitter taste from cucumbers.

@basicallyperkfect

milking a cucumber?##healthheroes ##kitchenhacks ##cucumber ##fyp

♬ original sound - basicallyperkfect

“I don't know if you've ever had a cucumber that's a little bit bitter, like it just doesn't taste fresh. That's because you have to milk your cucumbers,” she said.

In the TikTok, she explains that, to milk a cucumber, you have to cut the end off before rubbing it against the cut part of the vegetable in circular motions.

“You can already see that white stuff coming out,” she says as a white, milky substance builds up.

While the hack isn’t well-known, there are videos on YouTube that also show the method for removing the white substance called cucurbitacin, which, according to Oregon State University is the cause of the bitterness in cucumbers.

"Wild cucumbers contain relatively large concentrations of cucurbitacin and are highly bitter," OSU vegetable breeder Jim Myers said, "while their domestic cousins we grow in the garden and buy in the store, tend to have less but varying amounts of the bitter compound."

According to the university, cucurbitacin is mainly found in the “vegetative parts” of the plants such as the leaves, stem and roots, but it can spread to the fruit.

On social media, the hack has mostly been met with surprise from people who did not realise it is possible to draw the bitterness out.

“I can't tell if this is for real or not... guess I gotta go rub a cucumber,” one person commented on the TikTok.

Another said: “The things TikTok teaches me.”

However, others said they usually rely on the method before eating a cucumber.

“I’m from Georgia and my parents are farmers! I’ll never eat a cucumber without doing this, but we call it ‘drawing the bitter out,’” one person wrote.