TikTok cucumber salads top searches

X user joemilymc shared a post on May 20 saying TikTok’s cucumber-salad craze had resurfaced, pointing followers to a list of 11 recipes tied to Google’s 2024 search recap. The post echoed a broader food trend that took off in mid-2024, when TikTok creator Logan Moffitt’s cucumber videos spread across FoodTok and prompted a wave of copycat recipes. Google’s own Year in Search post from Dec. 10, 2024 did not list cucumber salad as the top global food-and-drink recipe, naming “Olympics chocolate muffins” instead. But publisher roundups published the same day said cucumber recipes were among the food searches highlighted in Google’s year-end materials. ### Who is the TikTok creator behind the cucumber-salad boom? Logan Moffitt was identified by TODAY in August 2024 as the TikTok creator widely known as “cucumber guy,” after his videos showing entire cucumbers sliced into deli containers drew millions of views. In one of the clips described by TODAY, Moffitt opens with the line, “Sometimes you need to eat an entire cucumber,” then adds soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, sesame oil, scallions, sesame seeds and “MSG, obviously.” (sheknows.com) August 2024 was the period when the trend broke into mainstream coverage. PureWow reported on Aug. 30, 2024 that U.S. Google Trends searches for “cucumber salad” had reached all-time highs, linking the spike directly to Moffitt’s TikTok videos and the many spin-offs that followed. ### Did Google itself say cucumber salad was a top 2024 search? Google’s official Year in Search 2024 blog post, published Dec. 10, 2024, highlighted broad global categories and said “Olympics chocolate muffins” was the top trending food-and-drink recipe globally. (today.com) The post also listed the year’s leading sports, news and entertainment searches, but the excerpt available from Google’s page does not separately rank cucumber salad as the top recipe. (purewow.com) Dec. 10, 2024 coverage from SheKnows said Google’s 2024 Year in Search report showed cucumber recipes were “one of the top food searches,” and used that claim as the basis for a roundup of 11 cucumber-salad recipes. That appears to be the list referenced in the May 20 X post. Based on the available sources, the clearest verified formulation is that cucumber-salad recipes were cited in media coverage of Google’s 2024 search trends, not that Google’s main global summary named them the No. 1 food search. (blog.google) ### Why did the recipe format travel so fast on TikTok? A quart container, one whole cucumber and a repeatable script helped make the videos easy to copy. TODAY said Moffitt posted dozens of variations, many with millions of views, including versions inspired by smoked salmon bagels and peanut-sauce flavors. PureWow reported that the format quickly expanded beyond Moffitt, with creators and home cooks adapting the same sliced-cucumber base into versions such as jalapeño popper, soy-ginger-garlic and crab rangoon. (sheknows.com) That gave the trend a built-in sequel effect: one template, many flavors. ### Was this actually a new dish? Cucumber salad was not new in 2024, even as TikTok gave it a new presentation. PureWow noted that cucumber salads have long existed across multiple food traditions, including Chinese smashed cucumber salad and the Polish sour-cream dish mizeria. (today.com) The TikTok version repackaged those flavors into a short-form video format built around slicing, shaking and eating from the same container. (purewow.com) May 20 posts like joemilymc’s show the afterlife of that cycle. The next reference point remains Google’s archived Year in Search 2024 pages and the still-searchable recipe roundups and TikTok videos that grew out of the trend. (blog.google) (purewow.com)