Muncher Cucumber

Some cucumbers, like this tasty Muncher variety, are called "burpless." I never really paid much attention to the term, but before I used it here to describe this cucumber I figured I better find out exactly what it means. In digging around online, I came across this very scientific study from the Cucurbit Breeding Project at North Carolina State University, Raleigh undertaken by project director Todd Wehner. The project personnel work on breeding and genetics research of pickling and slicing cucumber, seeded and seedless watermelon, and luffa (loofah) sponge gourd.

Wehner set out to determine if burpless cucumbers actually cause less burping or if it was more of a marketing term for oriental trellis cucumbers, of which Muncher is one. So, he fed so-called burpless cucumbers to both burp-prone and non-burp-prone judges. Although the results were not extremely conclusive, he did find slightly less gastric upset when burpless cucumbers were eaten. To read the entire study, visit http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/wehner/articles/art090.pdf.