Cucumaria: the strangest seafood you can eat (6 photos)

This delicacy initially scared off Soviet people with its unsightly appearance. But then they tried it, and it turned out that it was a “bomb”!





When cucumaria was distributed throughout the Soviet Union, no one wanted to mess with it.

“In those distant times, enterprises periodically sold food packages to employees. The set, as a rule, consisted of some good products, such as chicken, buckwheat, condensed milk, decent chocolates, good fish, and so on. But there was certainly a “load”. Something that was stale and few people bought,” Vadim from the Far North said on Pikabu.

“This time the “load” included jars of cucumaria with seaweed. And no one took this cucumaria with algae. They simply left it right in the buffet where the sets were sold. There, the entire utility room was filled with boxes of jars of this unfortunate cucumaria.”



Station Manager A.A. Ardashev is studying cucumaria. October 29, 1990 Kalachyan Grigory, Kozlov Sergey/ TASS

At first, the “ill-fated” cucumaria really did not have any popular love. Firstly, with the exception of the residents of Primorye and Sakhalin, no one knew what it was. Secondly, her appearance was most repulsive. Therefore, for some time, pyramids of canned food with a mysterious product gathered dust on Soviet shelves (and this was during a time of shortage of everything), and then abruptly disappeared. They disappeared after the Soviet people found out what it was.

Sea cucumber

Cucumaria is a mollusk from the class of holothurians. In shape, it resembles a very thick cucumber of brown or dark purple color (its name is translated from Latin as “sea cucumber”), can reach a length of 40 centimeters and weigh 1 kilogram.

Cucumaria lives on the seabed and moves along it, mainly at a depth of 5 - 50 meters, feeding on silt. This is a traditional product for the Far East, which is often confused with sea cucumber. They have a lot in common: for example, the ability to regenerate. Cucumaria is capable of regenerating itself from one third of its body, that is, if you cut a mollusk into three parts, then over time you can get three full-fledged animals.





When scientists started talking about the extreme usefulness of cucumaria, and began to call it a Far Eastern delicacy, the dusty jars with the mollusk were crushed.

Kills cancer cells

100 grams of cucumber meat contain only 35 kcal, while it is rich in useful elements: carotene and vitamin A are contained as much as in beef; polyunsaturated fatty acids - almost three times more than in fish, and minerals - almost ten times more than in the meat of terrestrial animals.

Shellfish meat is also valued for its collagen (which restores connective tissue) and its low carbohydrate content, and scientists from all over the world are researching the mollusk for medicinal uses.



Making preserves from seaweed and cucumaria. Yuri Smityuk/TASS

For example, they found that a substance from cucumaria (frondoside A) can kill cancer cells and has immunomodulatory effects, this study was carried out in vitro. The effectiveness of cucumaria in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease was also studied (mainly due to the polysaccharides it contains).

How to eat it

After catching, the cucumber is cleaned, cut in the center, and the insides are removed. After this, there are several options: you can immediately freeze it or boil it. Cook the cucumaria for 3-4 hours.

As a rule, it is not consumed raw (unlike China and Japan, where it is popular in sashimi format). Here it is boiled, dried or canned. The last option is the most popular because it facilitates transportation and storage. And the product is preserved mainly with seaweed - this is the composition in which Soviet people remember it.



But, in fact, you can do anything with cucumaria - fry, stew, make risotto from it, make a salad. “I think it goes best with vegetables and meat. When it comes to spices, I wouldn’t choose anything too bright or complex, since cucumaria’s own taste is rather neutral. Simple salt and pepper, tomato works well. Soy sauce, and indeed Japanese and Chinese traditional products, are geographically suitable. You can make a salad: fry cucumaria, add vegetables and soy sauce,” said the restaurant’s chef.



The most traditional cucumber dish in the Far East is skoblyanka. First, onions and carrots are fried, tomatoes are added there. You can add a little meat broth for a richer taste. Then add chopped cucumaria and pieces of meat, such as beef, and towards the end - a little bell pepper.