Glorious cucumber salad.

Being raised in lands decidedly North of the Mason Dixon line, there are many things about Southern cuisine that I do not pretend to understand.  For example: pimento cheese.  I want to love it, really, I do.  But it just doesn't ring my bell.  If we're going to be putting strange cheese stuff onto Ritz crackers, I'm perfectly happy with my pressurized can of Easy Cheese, thank you very much.  (Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that Easy Cheese is "a descendant of squeeze cheese."  So goes the circle of life, I guess, with each generation taking the dreams of their forebearers into new and, sometimes, unsettling places.) 

But one Southern staple that I always have room for on my plate is a chilled cucumber salad.  Particularly refreshing in the summertime, I have come to believe that no barbecue is complete without a bowl of this vinegary and yet subtly sweet goodness on the table.  There are a lot of variations on the theme out there, but the simple recipe below (adapted from Adrienne's Cucumber Salad on allrecipes.com) is my favorite. 

Chilled Cucumber Salad

4 large cucumbers, thinly sliced and partially peeled

Kosher sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

Toss the cucumbers with the sea salt and pepper in a bowl. Combine the vinegar, water, and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then pour over the cucumbers so that they are fully submerged below at least an extra inch of liquid.   Refrigerate at least 12 hours (may be refrigerated up to 24 hours).  When ready to serve, drain what is left of the liquid from the bowl (a lot of it will have been absorbed by the cucumbers). 

The salad can be eaten cold or at room temperature.