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sea cucumber cooking Q

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Andrew the fish

Well-Known Member
Oct 17, 2010
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My lady :girliewas watching my UV video and spotted sea cucumber one day. With a big "hey look at that, why didn't you take it?!". I guess I didn't know EVERYTHING about her. Anyhow, turns out there are a few of them cucumbers, here and there and pretty much everywhere. I just didn't know they are edible. Apparently, from what it sounds like, they are good food.

So the question is how to cook them, what is the most common and best way to eat them. Of course there are internet recipes but I am open to freedivers' take on it. Most recipe's involve buying dried-out solid hardwood cucumnbers and soaking them for a day before cooking. But, how to deal with fresh cought ones? how to clean? Can I freeze them for later or should I dry them? How quickly should they be dealt with once out of the water? :crutchthank you all
 
Only times I've had them was at Chinese 10-course meal. Look how they prepare them for that. Pretty decent - but not a personal fav or something I'd order.

They also offer shark fin soup. I pass on that one!
 
Like the other Great Cuisines, Chinese cooking is based on the idea that famine is only a crop failure away and so you need to be able to come up with ways to cook anything that is even remotely edible. To my mind, sea cucumber comes under the heading of "pretty remote". Others have had the same question and one asker found the following to be the best answer of all.

Dee:

The sea cucumber is a gelatinous creature that is indeed shaped like a cucumber. Like tofu, it is flavorless, but has the ability to soak up the flavors of the foods and seasonings it is cooked with. In Chinese cooking it is used in soups, stir-fries, and certain braised dishes.

Other names for the sea cucumber include beche de me, sea rat and sea slug (the latter is somewhat confusing sinc ethe real sea slug is another animal entirely). The Chinese name for the sea cucumber translates roughly into "sea ginseng" - it's unclear whether this is in recognition of the sea cucumber's reputed aphrodisiacal qualities, or because it is considered to be quite healthful. (It has been used to treat everything from high blood pressure in humans to joint pain in pot-bellied pigs.) It may also have something to do with its slippery feel, as the texture of food weights more heavily in Chinese cuisine than is generally the case in western cooking.

Freshly caught sea cucumber requires an extensive amount of preparation before making the transition from the ocean floor to your dinner plate. The complicated procedure takes place over several days and involves slitting open the belly and removing the guts, as well as washing and boiling the animal several times. Fresh sea cucumber that has already been cleaned and soaked is sometimes available in Asian markets, usually in the cold foods section or in containers of water. Many Asian stores also carry dried sea cucumber, which looks and feels almost exactly like a piece of cement, albeit not as heavy. It also must be soaked for several hours before cooking.
 
Yeap, sea cucumbers or trepangs are everywhere.
In fact,I eat everything that comes from the sea but I have never tried them.
But I know some guys from Croatia who eat them. They say they are cool..
For me they seem to be disgusting and repulsive hahahaha...





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SPEARFISHING
 
ok, you bunch of pu... oops... I mean... shy, sensitive, touchy-feely manly men. My GF's syster cooked a few of them cucmbers yesterday and they were awes... eh...I mean... just as bad as they look, totally disgusting and unedible. No need picking them, I can clean up seabed myself. Will not be easy, but... someone's gotta do it.
 
And now your girlfriend knows how to cook them and you have no further need for our advice and/or catcalls. Verra well done, that fish.
 
she cooked them by whatever she could find from google, and Google doesn't know everything. I was hoping to get some insight from here. But like I said, they are basically worms, imagine worms (picture them in your head), end of story. Everybody go home.
 

Worms? I thought they were more like sea urchins, sea stars etc... Also if I remember some can release some powerful toxins to kill predators, not sure if it's harmful to humans or not or has any implications on which ones you can eat and/or how you should prepare them... :blackeye
 
Simos, jokes aside, sea cuc's are actually very good. Nothing close to urchins, same class but very remote on the plate. I can say I like them urchins and now I like cuces too, its just one more thing added to menu. I guess since nobody eats them I will be like a guinea pig, doing this trial and error thing. This thread lost its original purpose.

There are different kinds I have seen in Thailand, blackishly-blue, those release some kind of spyder web gluey strings - disgusting, but apparently edible too. Here in BC they are like that on the picture (from internet)

anyways. thank everybody, was entertainy if nothing else
 

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I'm most familiar with the ones commonly seen in Cyprus, which look like this (but dark brown in colour and probably smaller):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...uous_Sea_Cucumber,_Coconut_Island,_Hawaii.JPG

Not heard anyone eating them in Cyprus... I saw different ones in the maldives etc, they were a bit more 'spongy', shorter and much fatter..

Those sticky spidery web thingies they eject from their ass in self-defense are not toxic, they are part of their respiratory system. I think they grow them back within a few weeks but they can also release some toxin I don't know much about...
 
Reactions: Andrew the fish
Guinea pig is actually very good and considered a delicacy in Central and South America. I roasted mine (skinned and cleaned). In some countries they are cooked whole with the hair burnt off. don't tell my daughter where Tristan went. :rcard
 
Reactions: artiz
I thought guinea pigs were a meal of last resort, being somewhat strong and stringy. I guess it depends on their diet, what you're used to, etc. All I know is that they're incredibly stupid, noisy and obnoxious. If they can be eaten, at least they have some reason for existing.
 
I really didn't eat the Guinea Pig at home--in survival training--if I told you where I'd have to kill you. :martialBut I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to eat Sea Cucumbers.
 
Good grief, did you used to do that sh*t, too? Man, some of the things I did when I was young scare me today. I'm sure glad I survived to regret what I did.
 
There are many things I regret in my life but training, Scouts, and most of my wilderness experiences I relish and still use. :blackeye
 
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