Cucumbers in plastic

January 5, 2015 2:46 PM

What is the fastest, most efficient way of getting that fine cling wrap off of cucumbers* without cutting into the cucumber lengthwise?**

Bonus points for telling me why there's cling wrap on cucumbers in the first place. I don't believe it's really to keep in moisture, because the unwrapped cucumbers are much wetter, which is why I'm eating the wrapped ones in the first place.

*my kitchen shears aren't doing the trick. The wrap is too fine and they're too big. It would burn my butt to have to bring a pair of fabric shears to live in the kitchen, not to mention the fact that I feel like if a really sharp vegetable knife won't cut the cling wrap properly, I don't know why fabric shears would. I'm hoping there's a simple fix, like when I learned all of a sudden in my late 40s that when the milk carton says "press here to open" it really means press EXACTLY here and it works like a charm.

**and yes, I'm sure the actual easy way is to cut into the cucumber but humor me here because I have a strong emotional preference to only cut the cucumber width-wise. For reasons. Reasons, I tell you! Reasons that may not be fully articulate-able.

Thanks hive mind!

posted by janey47 to Food & Drink (25 answers total)

Cut halfway through one end, width-wise, and use the resulting flap to peel off the rest of the film?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:50 PM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've always just slipped my paring knife under the plastic and poked the end through until it rips enough that I can pull the rest off.
posted by cooker girl at 2:52 PM on January 5, 2015 [11 favorites]

I slice the cucumber width wise, through the plastic wrap, a few cm from the end. Then I put my hand around it, and slide it down the cucumber, rolling the wrap off as I go, kind of like putting on a condom.
posted by lollusc at 2:54 PM on January 5, 2015 [8 favorites]

If your cucumber is very tapered you'll have to cut further along, in the widest part, but then you'll have at worst, two halves of a cucumber that you can do the same thing to to unwrap each.
posted by lollusc at 2:56 PM on January 5, 2015

I also poke a knife under the plastic, blade out, where the seam in the plastic is, then rip the wrap apart along the seam.
posted by cecic at 3:01 PM on January 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

I either cut through near the top and roll/pull the film off like a condom or I slip the tip of a paring knife under the plastic seam that runs along the length and cut down along the seam's sides until I have enough of the plastic free to grab it and pull the rest off. It's mostly infuriating.

I think they wrap them because the skin in thinner and more tender than the conventional cucumber which makes them harder to wax effectively. I also think that they'd snap more easily without the plastic case as they're longer and more delicate than conventional cucs. These are my unfounded theories.
posted by quince at 3:02 PM on January 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

Why they wrap 'em.
posted by beagle at 3:31 PM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: What about the fact that the cling wrap tears and sticks and doesn't just roll off the cucumber? I'm crying bitter tears, my friends.
posted by janey47 at 3:46 PM on January 5, 2015

A really sharp knife, used to slice the wrap off sideways works.
Otherwise I'm imagining that a stanley knife with a hooked carpet and vinyl cutter blade would be interesting to test.
posted by Namlit at 3:56 PM on January 5, 2015

Cut a nick in the wrapper at one end of the cucumber. With a good, sharp paring knife, slide the tip of the knife down the seam of the wrapper -- upside-down -- so that the back of the knife rests on the cucumber and doesn't gut it.

(I didn't realize this was a thing people struggled with. No offense intended at all.)
posted by mudpuppie at 4:10 PM on January 5, 2015 [4 favorites]

There's generally a small hole in the wrap to get the knife started, fyi.
posted by effluvia at 5:30 PM on January 5, 2015

Maybe your knife isn't sharp enough. Seriously.
posted by cooker girl at 5:50 PM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Maybe try a different brand? It sounds like the wrap used on yours is more sticky and clingy and weird than what most other people are experiencing. Mine slides right off using the method above.
posted by lollusc at 7:49 PM on January 5, 2015

Nthing to maybe try a different brand? I have difficulty understanding how this could be an issue, and actually enjoy cutting it off. Any knife with a point does fine.
posted by turkeyphant at 11:09 PM on January 5, 2015

I've only ever seen English cucumbers, the long, slender variety, shrinkwrapped. I also see them refrigerated in the store more often. The big, rounder cucumbers are often waxed, which I assume serves the same purpose. I've only ever seen smaller, unwaxed, Persian or Kirby cucumbers in other plastic packaging, or in smaller quantities loose, or in larger quantities loose in high-turnover markets.

Different varieties of cucumber start with different "wetness", as you put it, and lose it at different rates. Maybe you've only seen older English cucumbers and fresher unwrapped cukes?

Two options for cutting off the shrinkwrap: if you have less issue with cutting a very shallow score into the skin of the cucumber, and you have a sharp, pointed knife, you can grasp it very close to the tip, and cut down the side of the cucumber lengthwise, then peel the wrap off where it's cut. If you don't have a nicely pointed knife or you feel unsure about holding the knife that way, you can get one of these little tools that will make an extremely shallow score.

If I'm using less than a whole cucumber, I usually cut off what I need, score an inch or so of the plastic wrap at the cut end, and peel it off using the score as a starting point. One benefit is that the cucumber will taper smaller in the direction I'm peeling, so it all comes off easily without having the score the whole thing. Then I place a small square of fresh plastic wrap over the cut side, wrapping it around the edges, and that keeps it good in the fridge for several days.
posted by WasabiFlux at 11:41 PM on January 5, 2015

I have had to open more cucumbers than you can possibly imagine--it's possible that I've opened more in one day than you have or will in your entire life (cucumber nibbly things for a 3500-person catering, once). All you need is a properly sharp knife. Slip tip through the wrap, slide along the cucumber, blade flat against it, is the best method. The other method is to just whack through at the widest point and pull off from the ends.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:33 AM on January 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: So I really do have a sharp knife. The tip breaks through the cling wrap so pointing the blade up requires repeated scrabbling under the cling wrap to start the cut again. I also really do cut the damn thing in half, and then try to cut the cling wrap off with the tip of the sharp knife. Still have the problem with the cling wrap breaking. Then trying to pull it off, the cling wrap stretches instead of sliding, and it also gets stuck in a bunch if I try to scrooch it down toward the narrower end. I'M CRYING, METAFILTER, CAN YOU NOT SAVE ME?
posted by janey47 at 4:00 PM on January 6, 2015

Well, you bought a sharp knife (Shuns are excellent; I have one in my roll); do you use a steel before every time you use the knife, and how often do you sharpen?

Don't point the blade up. Slide the tip under the wrap, lay the blade flat against the cucumber, and slide.

I'm trying to understand why the cling wrap breaking is a bad thing. It helps get the wrap off the cucumber, doesn't it?
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:26 PM on January 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Excuse me for insisting on a wee point here (no pun intended). You have a good knife. But is it sharp? These things often get confused. Your description sounds like it's perhaps sharp enough for the cucumber but that especially the tip is not sharp enough for the cling wrap. Most kitchen knives, even good ones, come at best only sort-of-sharp and should be properly honed (self-link).

And if that's not what you want to do, there's WasabiFlux's (and my own) suggestions for alternative (non-food, but perhaps useful in this scenario) tools that beg to be tested.
posted by Namlit at 4:33 PM on January 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I don't want to thread sit but in response to the specific questions just raised -- It's basically new and has only been used on vegetables for less than three months. The cling wrap breaking is bad because I want to cut it off not poke holes in it. Poking holes in it means picking at it, either with the knife or my fingers, and the goal here is to get the cling wrap off quickly and easily. In one stroke, as it were. The tip of the knife is sharp enough that it cuts the cling wrap without gaining sufficient purchase to keep sliding down the cuke. I'll probably get the paper cutter suggested by Wasabi Flux. I just want you guys to know I'm not hallucinating, I really do have a sharp knife (this is the sixth or so Shun knife I've purchased over the course of several years, so I promise I know a sharp knife when I use one), and the cling wrap really is fighting me. I'm considering making a youtube video to illustrate the problem :-(
posted by janey47 at 5:19 PM on January 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Please, yes, please do that.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 5:24 PM on January 6, 2015

Try cutting the cling wrap at an angle, and then taking it off in a spiral form?
posted by yueliang at 4:20 PM on January 10, 2015

I've been making a bunch of tests with cling wrapped veggies throughout the week (broccoli defies me much like cucumbers defy you, it turns out). So, for cucumbers, the safest and most efficient way is to take the biggest chef's knife, thoroughly sharpened and honed, pierce it into the wrap lying flat against the cucumber, cutting edge facing away from your other hand, and slice along the cucumber in one concise and controlled movement.
"Honed" is important here, any micro-serrated character of the edge induces clinginess and hassle.
posted by Namlit at 3:13 AM on January 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Broccoli: do the same thing, but from just under the widest part of the, er, tree, up and over to the other side. Pull off from the bottom.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:12 AM on January 13, 2015

Since others have expressed similar, I think we need a video because still can't understand for the life of me how this could be an issue that lasted more than a couple of seconds.
posted by turkeyphant at 6:29 PM on January 20, 2015 [1 favorite]