I don't peel cucumbers but I won't eat unpeeled carrots. If cucumbers are fresh and well grown the peeling tastes fine. I don't have any rational excuse for not eating unpeeled carrots.

I peel cucumbers, and carrots. I usually peel potatoes as well. The only cucumbers I buy are English, but I still peel them.

We always buy the kind labeled as English or Persian cucumbers. They're often thinner than regular cukes. No need to peel.

Here's a short discussion from a Chowhound forum. Some suggest regular cukes are waxed and that the skin can be bitter, either a good reason to peel it first. I don't know if that's right or wrong but we like the premium kinds better.

Cucumbers

I peel my cukes. I love the seeds, can't stand the peel. At least on regular supermarket cukes. I am fine with English and some farmer's market cukes not being peeled.

I can't stand the current trend to peel part and leave the rest on at restaurants. If you are going to start to peel the regular cuke… STOP BEING LAZY AND FINISH THE JOB. I don't need the wax, for one.

I'd peel Russet potatoes, but I don't feel the serious need. I don't buy them for home cooking anyway.

I don't peel Yukon golds, my favorite taters - these I am fine as they grow.

Not fond of carrots to begin with, they end up in mirepoix, and there by the time one fishes them out, no one cares whether they got peeled or not.

I also peel my cu.cumbers, potatoes, carrots, and celery

I wash them well but don't peel because the peel has a lot of the nutrients, but I buy organic. Cucumber peels I find harder to digest but I usually just use them in salads and I dice them up pretty small.

The only cucumbers I like are small ones, fresh from my garden. They have a very thin skin and don't need to be peeled. The large ones from the grocery store would require peeling but I mostly avoid them

I don't peel my homegrown cukes nor the English variety we buy at the grocery. I don't peel potatoes or carrots, either.

For some people except for the ones Elmer mentioned the peel can cause gastric distress. Seeds when the cuk is older can do the same thing.

One of the things that I consider old fashion because I first saw the use of cucumbers this way in a 1880's cookbook that is starting to be on menus here is cooked cucumbers. The flavor is slightly different and they can go from firm to mush quickly depending on how they are fixed, steamed, stir fried, or chunks in stews and soups. The older cookbooks suggested parboiling, throwing out that water then cooking until tender.

I only eat the ones I pick from my garden and no I don't peel them. I often don't "seed" them as instructed either. I stand in the whole foods group and prefer to eat all the vitamins etc. vegetables have to offer.

I rarely peel vegetables, but should I buy a "store" cuke, it will be peeled and seeded.

Linda, celery? Do you mean the strings or do you actually peel it?

Yes, on cucumbers the peel is bitter. It is okay if you pickle them, but not fresh. Even the ones I grow in the garden, I don't seed, but I try to buy "small". I don't buy the "other" kinds of cucumbers. Potatoes I peel. Carrots I peel. I do keep the carrot peelings and ends in the freezer for chicken stock. Since I don't peel potatoes with a knife, there is not enough left for potato skin appetizers.

I don't peel my cucumbers but was taught to cut get the ends off them and rub them against the cucumber to get the bitterness out. Not sure if that's true or not, but its a habit now as is to put my sour cream, cottage cheese and yogurt containers upside down in the fridge to make them last longer.

I peel cukes and also rub the cut off ends as I was taught. I don't peel carrots but I do scrub them with a vegetable brush. I find, personally, the carrots are sweeter with the peel on. I rarely ever buy the so called baby carrots. I like the nice healthy dark orange ones that are full size. I find the best ones at the Mexican market. I don't peel potatoes but scrub them also.

DH can’t stand cukes with peel! Will pick them out of a salad when at a restaurant.

I have to peel cukes, as that coating of wax turns my stomach and you never know where they've been or if really washed.

Even out of my summer garden I peel cukes.....carrots-same thing-have to peel them-cannot "trust"the industry.

"Yes, on cucumbers the peel is bitter."

The peel on English/Persian cucumbers isn't bitter.

The peel on English/Persian cucumbers isn't bitter.

And it's not waxed.

Well, it is to me. I have had it and I don't like it. You eat the peel, I am not. Yes, I know what an "English" cucumber is and I STILL think it is bitter! They wrap them in plastic and I DO NOT LIKE the peel!

I peel 4 little strips lenghthwise before I slice them. I think it makes them look pretty.

I think the cut the ends off and rub on the cuke is a holdover from when almost all cukes had spiny projections on the sides. Other than a mental thing unless you rubbed the sides firmly enough to damage the flesh below the skin rubbing should do little to the flavor.

The only time I peel cucumbers is when I make my cucumber dip. I always peel carrots. Potatoes are peeled for everything except baked potatoes and sometimes scalloped potatoes.

I don't peel any vegetables except hard squash. I can't think of anything else. Well and of course onions and garlic.

I peel "regular" cukes but don't it doesn't bother me if a salad comes with a couple unpeeled slices. My grandparents taught us to take a slice off each end of a cucumber and taste it. If bitter, cut another hefty slice off and try again. I don't remember ever having a cuke be bitter the whole way through, but maybe that happens sometimes. Grandpa grew them every year in his garden. I don't think they ever had the long skinny kind.

For carrots, I give a good scrubbing to the ones I buy at the farmer's
market from farmers I trust, otherwise I peel them. I peel potatoes if
the skin isn't clear, usually leave them on if the skin is pretty. Somewhere I read that the nutrients being in the potato's skin was a myth, but that was a while ago so other studies probably have contradicted it by now, so do as you please!

I don't really peel anything, except bananas and citrus fruit. :) I buy a lot of fruit and veg organic (the dirty dozen list) so I don't feel the need. But I do wash the heck out of them with vinegar water before using. I know people who don't wash fruit nor produce before eating or cooking, yuck.

catticusmockingbird - yes I actually use a potato peeler and peel my celery. I just take off the top layer.

I've tried those long, skinny 'English' (or whatever they're supposed to be) cukes that come wrapped in plastic, and I don't like their peels, either. I raised my own cukes (preferably the 'burpless' variety) up until about 10 years ago. Always peeled them, even when picked very young. I just don't like those peels! I'm glad to know it is not "just me!" Never thought of them as particularly bitter, they just taste nasty!

I've also tried the cut off the end and rub method, couldn't tell that it made a bit of difference.

My mother always used to say that all the 'good stuff' in a vegetable or fruit was closest to the skin, yet she always peeled potatoes, and cukes. Carrots, turnips, most root vegetables, got a good scrub. Wax coatings were not a problem, we raised all our own vegetables.

Rusty

Linda_6, I only 'de-string' celery if the strings in the large outside ribs seem tough. And not even then if it's going into something that will be well cooked, like soup or stew. Otherwise, it just gets a good wash, too.

Rusty

I buy the baby English cucumbers. They usually come in bags of 6 or so. I don't peel them. If for some reason i have a regular cucumber, i peel it. I seed all cucumbers, even homegrown or the baby English ones.

Yes I do. I do not like eating the peels at all.

Depends on the cuke and what I'm using it for.

Regular store cukes almost always get peeled, or on the occasion striped for
presentation purposes. Their peels are meant to be that bit
thicker/tougher/waxed that are unappealing to me.

English/plasticwrapped store cukes often are not peeled, except for a particular cuke
salad mom makes, and the occasional striped for presentation, like
making cuke shot glasses.

Home grown cukes can depend on themarket, variety, and growing season. Some varieties are good to leavethe skin on in general, others not so much. Burpless, Marketmore, andLemon are all ok skins, but I'm not fond of Straight 8 or White Wonder skins. In a dryer season or from a market grower that seems to not water
well, the peels can be icky and need to come off regardless of variety.

For folks that aren't fond of the bitterness, cutting off more of the stem end and peeling can help since that's where the cucurbitacin concentrates more.

I think the cukes that are covered in plastic cling-wrap are so covered precisely because they're not treated with wax.

I peel the ones from the store because they are waxy and because I don't care for the peels. I stopped buying the cucs from the farmers market, because no matter which seller or market I purchased from, the cucs (the flesh, not the skin) are always too bitter to eat. Always seed the cucumbers. Don't like the English, but the lemon ones are ok.

I buy English cucumbers that are wrapped in plastic. I do not peel them but I wash them well. If I buy the waxed ones, I peel them.

I'm not crazy about cukes, peeled or otherwise, but now buy the organic Persian cukes from Trader Joe's and they've turned me into a cuke lover! No peeling necessary; the skin is more like zucchini skin texture. Some of our farmer's market vendors are now growing Persian cukes, but if I can't get them there, I head to TJ's to round out my veggie purchases with their cukes.

I wish I liked the flavor of cukes because there are several seed sources that sell seeds of types from all over the world. I only want to try them and not waste them. Since not even the squirrels will eat then the few times I have planted odd, to me, ones like the lemon cukes I have given up.

Yes, I usually peel a cucumber, except the English variety and most of the small ones I grow. I can’t stand that waxy feel on a regular cucumber. I taste the ones I grow first to see if the skin is bitter. Sometimes it is, sometimes not. I don’t usually peel carrots but I brush with a stiff brush.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The peel doesn't bother me. In the past few years I've found that the regular cucumbers from the grocery store often have no flavor to the point that they seem almost plastic-y. We buy the English cucumbers most of the time. I often make refrigerator pickles with sliced English cucumbers and they would probably be odd without the peel.

Carrots are always peeled unless home grown and potatoes depend on the potato and what is to be done with them.

I don't peel cukes...just wash them really, really well. I do peel carrots because

they never look that clean to me and they are grown in the ground, of course.

Potatoes depends on what I am doing with them, too. Baked...just washed

really well. Boiled...peeled. Fried...both..either or. Any other cooked way, I

peel.

No I scrub everything and eat it as it is. That gets rid of the wax enough for us here. And I don't mind a bit of bitter and seed. I usually counter it with the flavor of the dressing.

Peel cucumbers, eat the seeds.

Early after harvest, usually scrub potatoes, carrots, etc., but later in the season when the surfaces have deteriorated some, more inclined to peel, at least the less attractive area.

o j