So many different ways to pickle a cucumber - or gherkin, or cornichon

I was just going to do something simple (well I thought it would be simple) on the difference between cornichons and gherkins, but then when I came to look at it I found a whole lot of different ways of pickling cucumbers. And they do it all over the world - and it's also very fashionable. There are so many different ways that I feel quite overwhelmed. if you want to try to make some, just google pickling cucumbers and you will see what I mean.

So the quick answer I think is that a cornichon is just a smaller version of a gherkin, which is a particular kind of cucumber. When I say smaller, I mean that it is picked younger.

I'm not sure I've ever seen any in the shops or the market. They look a bit knobblier than an ordinary cucumber. And I've tried growing cucumbers with no success at all, even though they say they are easy and you will have too many. Not me.

As to the pickling process I think this probably depends on the country of origin or what the person doing it decides to put in and how to do it. I found recipes as simple as cutting up the cucumbers, putting them in a jar with a few spices and then covering with vinegar and topping up with water. Then you put them in a fridge and hey presto. That was from DIY Natural. And it was here that I learnt that commercial pickles often contain colouring and other evil things. Mind you a lot of the home grown recipes I found included turmeric, which is a sort of colouring, so I'm not sure whether their criticism is valid.

I guess the most popular method seemed to be to soak the vegetables in salt for a few hours, rinse and then cover in a jar with boiled vinegar, and a spice mix. Sometimes there was sugar in the mix as well. How you cut the pickles up seems almost as various as the pickling methods used.

So why cornichons and gherkins? Well one dish I was considering for my meal yesterday, and which I may well make, was a recipe from Nigel Slater which was a chicken dish with gherkins and sour cream. Could I use cornichons I wondered, because I have cornichons but not gherkins. But I went and bought some gherkins anyway. They were bigger yes, but whether the pickling method is different I have no idea. And I stood in front of this section of the supermarket for a while wondering about the differences between gherkins, cornichons, dill pickles and bread and butter cucumbers, not to mention just plain pickled cucumbers. If I see some of these smaller gherkin type of cucumber I might give it a go myself. I don't use them enough, but I do like them. Like capers.

And of course they're good for you. All that fermentation, as we know, is good for the gut. All the top chefs of the world are into it these days so you should try to emulate them.

These bread and butter cucumbers look tempting don't they? And not like anything you will see in a shop. The recipe is from The Guardian's Rachel Kelly.