County fair judging gave me a new trick for crooked zucchini

At the Clackamas County fair last August, a judge passed over my curled 12 inch zucchini because it was too bent for the straight veggie class. I took that same ugly thing home, sliced it into a quick pickle brine, and it tasted way better than any perfect market squash I've had. Anyone else lean into the weird shaped veggies for pickling or roasting instead of fighting the form?

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1 Comment

the_phoenix1mo ago

My neighbor’s dog ate a crooked cucumber straight off the vine last week and now she only buys the bent ones for her salads, says they’re crunchier somehow. But here’s the thing nobody’s bringing up, those twisted zukes and gnarled squash are usually the ones that got pollinated by hand or grew under stress, which means they pack more flavor compounds. That’s why your pickle tasted better, it wasn’t the brine, it was the stress. So instead of hiding them in pickles, I’d say slice them thin and roast them with salt and oil, the weird ones caramelize harder on the edges than the straight ones ever do.