Now You're Cooking! with Judy King: Summer Cucumbers in Sour Cream Updated

Cucumber Salad

As a kid I loved the family picnics for all the fabulous picnic foods. I remember fondly that I had an aunt who would make this salad, but I didn't know how to make it, and didn't consider asking for the recipe.

As a young adult I encountered this same salad through my husband. His grandmother, who was an outstanding cook, would make this salad during the summer. I tried to learn how to make it from her, but she never measured anything, and I lacked confidence that I could make something without a recipe.

Now I try to impress upon people that a recipe is only "a starting place", and sometimes it is "only a suggestion".

I am quite sure that the salad I had as a child was simply sliced cucumbers in sour cream, a little milk and salt and pepper. Not being knowledgeable about food at that time in my life, I could be wrong and it might have had a little vinegar mixed in also.

Nana, my husbands lovely grandmother, had a more involved process for her salad. First she sliced the cucumber very thin, and then she put it into a colander, salted the cuke slices, and weighted it down for several hours to remove a lot of the water.

Sliced and salted in a colander.

Put some weight on top and let the liquid come out in a bowl, not in your salad. Can you see the liquid in the bottom bowl?

Salted cucumbers after thirty minutes.

This is the way I do it now because I have discovered that salting the cucumbers helps keep the salad from being too watery and seasons the cukes without tasting salty.

I put the colander in one bowl to collect the water that drains off, and one bowl on top with jars of food to put some weight on the cukes. I leave that on my counter for several hours and then taste the cukes. If they do taste overly salty, rinse them and give them time to drain.

Water from Salted Cucumbers

About 1 cup of water was removed from cucumbers in 4 hours.

If I want to make this ahead of time, I would also squeeze out some liquid before combining with my dressing.

I don't usually have sour cream in the house, but I always have plain yogurt, so I now make most creamy dressing using yogurt. I put about 1 cup yogurt, 1 tbsp. cider vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk.