Comments on: Cucumber Salad in Two Grandmotherly Styles

By: Jaime

Jaime — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:06:38 +0000

We make gumersalat as well – and there is a recipe in the old Russian-German cookbook that came out of the midwest years and years ago – but I just make it by taste. So no true amounts, but I use:

cukes
salt
a tablespoon or two of quality sour cream, depending on the size of the salad
sweet onion (We use Walla Walla sweets, as that’s where our Russian-German family lived)
a couple of splashes of white vinegar (I’ve used white wine vinegar in a pinch)
one fresh clove of garlic
pepper to taste
dried dill (optional)

I let the cukes sit in the vinegar and salt for about an hour or so before hand. I have to remove the seeds from the cukes, so I do thicker half-moon shape rather than rounds, but growing up, gumersalat was always served in rounds. Onions should be cut so they are long-ish, but if you’d rather have them in a rough chop, that works as well. Put the clove of garlic through a garlic press. Add all ingredients to the vinegar and cukes. Then you kind of have to mess with the quantities until it tastes like you remember as a kid. :) I shake dried dill over for a bit of color – I don’t think my grandmother did that.

Basically, you can follow recipes for tzatsiki and come pretty darn close to gumersalat – just use less sour cream so it’s not as thick.

My parents both grew up in Walla Walla WA eating gumersalat – my father’s family used the sour cream, but my mother’s family didn’t.

By: Pat Troyka

Pat Troyka — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:33:03 +0000

HELP! My dad’s family was Russian German, and my Mom learned to make what he called “Gumersalat” (sp?). I had the recipe in a book, but the book got wet, and all the family’s gone now. Anybody know the ingredients and amounts?

By: Danielle

Danielle — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:01:48 +0000

Thanks, everyone!

arfi – I’m really starting to get into Indonesian cooking, actually.

Lyra – That sounds fascinating. What’s the recipe?

toadberry – No worries, I enjoy seeing your comments pop up!

By: toadberry

toadberry — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:41:58 +0000

When I was growing up in Hungary we used the same dressing for everything, cucumbers, lettuce, sliced tomatoes with sliced yellow peppers. It was made of water and vinegar as you say, but we also added a bit of sugar.

PS. Danielle, I’m not stalking you, just getting addicted to your blog. :)

By: Lyra

Lyra — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:33:06 +0000

My Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvania Dutch to most) Grandmother always made a cucumber salad with milk and vinegar which my Dad and now I make. Its hard to convince others to eat it since it contains both milk and vinegar, which curdles the milk, of course, but its delicious so I dont mind eating it myself.

By: Zsofi

Zsofi — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:48:52 +0000

Hi Danielle,
very authentic.now this is exactly the salad that is on every single restaurant menu during summer in Budapest. (With some paprikás csirke of course:)

By: ann

ann — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:38:53 +0000

“anything but heinz”
that cracks me up! any reason why?
i love cucumber salads too. Your Ima’s is a lot like my gramma’s except hers doesn’t have paprika, it has dill.
thanks for these variations.

By: mr.ed

mr.ed — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:37:55 +0000

This recipe, or one similar was almost the only vegetable Dave’s grandfather Sandy would eat voluntarily. Anything else he had been served “at lunch.”

By: arfi

arfi — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:16:59 +0000

Unfortunately, we don’t grow cucumbers in our garden, so I miss them a lot. Cucumbers are used a lot in Indonesian dishes, eaten raw or stir-fried. I just love to see your salad. Makes me craving for cucumbers! Oh, NO!

By: Kristen

Kristen — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:53:49 +0000

I love those salads, but more importantly I can’t get over those gorgeous bowls. Wow!