How To Easily Pick Out 1 Pound Of Cucumbers Without A Scale
One of the hassles of grocery shopping is having to weigh out your produce. Many times if produce is on sale, it's by weight. This means you have to grab the item, shove it into the plastic baggie, and find an open scale to weigh it. But what happens if the scale is being used, or there isn't one at all?
It may not seem like a big deal, but several recipes call for exactly one pound of produce. Food & Wine has a recipe for cucumber salad, which calls for exactly 1 pound of cucumber and if you are starting your journey to make pickles, you'll need at least one pound of cukes. While certain grocery chains like Randalls sell pre-packaged English cucumbers in one-pound bags, other varieties of cucumbers are sold individually (per Randalls).
You don't want to mess up your recipe by accidentally buying too much or too little. And luckily, there is a simple hack that can solve your cucumber-buying woes.
Use your hands instead of a scale
The tried and true method for picking 1 pound of cucumbers is to pick two medium-sized cucumbers. Kitchn defines a medium-sized cucumber as one that is five to six inches in length and Sweetish Hill says it should be just wide enough that you can easily wrap your hands around it. Knowing this little hack will certainly make the shopping process a bit easier. However, while the hack seems to work for standard cucumbers, it's not clear if it'll work for English cucumbers, which are different from other cukes because they are longer in size, seedless, and less bitter.
If you're not going to immediately use your cucumbers, you need to store them properly. Cut and uncut cucumbers do best in the crisper drawer or towards the front of the refrigerator. These spots allow the cucumbers to stay cold, but not too cold, because of the warm air that comes through when the door is opened. Moisture will deteriorate whole cucumbers rather quickly. so keep them dry and wrapped in paper towels until ready to use.