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The Gherkin (French cornichon) is a small cucumber type vegetable, usually of the same species as the cucumber
Cucumber

The cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash , and in the same genus as the muskmelon....
 (Cucumis sativus), but of a different race
RACE (biology)

RACE, or Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends, is a technique used in molecular biology to obtain the full length sequence of an RNA transcript found within a cell....
. They are usually picked when 3 to 8 cm (1 to 3 in) in length and pickled
Pickling

Pickling, also known as brining or corning, is the process of preserving food by Anaerobic organism fermentation in brine , to produce lactic acid bacteria, or marination and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar ....
 in jars or cans with vinegar
Vinegar

Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid . It also may come in a diluted form....
 (often flavoured with herbs, particularly dill
Dill

Dill is a short-lived perennial plant herbaceous. It is the sole species of the genus Anethum, though classified by some botanists in a related genus as Peucedanum graveolens C.B.Clarke....
; hence, ‘dill pickle’) or brine
Brine

File:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848.JPGFile:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848-2.JPGBrine is water Saturation or nearly saturated with a Salt .It is used to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining ....
 to become a pickled cucumber
Pickled cucumber

A pickled cucumber, most often simply called a pickle in the United States and Canada, is a cucumber that has been Pickling in a brine, vinegar, or other solutions and left to ferment for a period of time....
.

The term can also be used to refer to the West Indian Burr Gherkin (Cucumis anguria), a related plant species, originally West Africa
West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km:...
n, that was introduced to the West Indies, probably by the Portuguese
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
.






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Picklingcucumbers
The Gherkin (French cornichon) is a small cucumber type vegetable, usually of the same species as the cucumber
Cucumber

The cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash , and in the same genus as the muskmelon....
 (Cucumis sativus), but of a different race
RACE (biology)

RACE, or Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends, is a technique used in molecular biology to obtain the full length sequence of an RNA transcript found within a cell....
. They are usually picked when 3 to 8 cm (1 to 3 in) in length and pickled
Pickling

Pickling, also known as brining or corning, is the process of preserving food by Anaerobic organism fermentation in brine , to produce lactic acid bacteria, or marination and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar ....
 in jars or cans with vinegar
Vinegar

Vinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid . It also may come in a diluted form....
 (often flavoured with herbs, particularly dill
Dill

Dill is a short-lived perennial plant herbaceous. It is the sole species of the genus Anethum, though classified by some botanists in a related genus as Peucedanum graveolens C.B.Clarke....
; hence, ‘dill pickle’) or brine
Brine

File:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848.JPGFile:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848-2.JPGBrine is water Saturation or nearly saturated with a Salt .It is used to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining ....
 to become a pickled cucumber
Pickled cucumber

A pickled cucumber, most often simply called a pickle in the United States and Canada, is a cucumber that has been Pickling in a brine, vinegar, or other solutions and left to ferment for a period of time....
.

The term can also be used to refer to the West Indian Burr Gherkin (Cucumis anguria), a related plant species, originally West Africa
West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km:...
n, that was introduced to the West Indies, probably by the Portuguese
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
. This ‘true’ or Burr Gherkin or badunga cannot interbreed with the ‘true’ cucumber (Cucumis sativus), which is the condiment
Condiment

In the United Kingdom, a condiment used to be confined to salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar. Use of the term condiment has broadened and now is generally considered to be any prepared edible Chemical substance or mixture, often Food preservation or Fermentation , that is added in relatively small quantities, most often at the table...
 vegetable
Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
 now generally known as the gherkin or dill pickle. The West Indian Burr Gherkin is edible and may be pickled but must be picked when no longer than 4 cm (1.5 in) long, since it becomes bitter
Bitter

Bitter can refer to:* Taste#Bitterness, one of the five basic tastes* Bitter , a kind of ale particularly popular in Britain* Bitters, an herbal preparation now used mostly in cocktails...
 and spiny
Spine (botany)

Spines are leaves that have been modified into cylindrical, hard structures with sharp ends. They are occasionally called thorn , which is incorrect ....
 if allowed to grow larger.

Etymology

The ultimate origin of the word is unknown, but it comes to English by way of early modern Dutch gurkkijn, agurkkijn (now gurkje, augurkje), dim. of agurk, augurk (also shortened gurk), cucumber. (The word ‘pickle’ itself is derived from the Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 pekel, a salt or acid
Acid

An acid is traditionally considered any chemical compound that, when dissolved in water, gives a solution with a hydrogen ion Activity greater than in pure water, i.e....
 preserving fluid.) The similarly pronounced Swedish
Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
 word, “gurka”, means cucumber, cognate with German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 “Gurke”.

The fruit itself may have originated in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
. The ‘pickled gherkin’ was known, although not by that name, to the ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
ns no later than the 3rd century BC and enjoyed in ancient Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
, and Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. The gherkin is mentioned in English in the seventeenth century, although the English diarist Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English people Navy Board and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under James II of England....
 describes the ‘girkin’ in his entry for 1661-12-01 as ‘a rare thing’. Knowledge of the condiment may have been disseminated throughout Europe from the Middle East in the course of the Jewish Diaspora
Diaspora

The term diaspora refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnicity identity who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their Settler territory, and became residents in areas often far removed from the former....
.

The gherkin may have been introduced to the American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 public by one Minton Collins of Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the Capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county....
, who was offering it for sale in the Virginia Gazette in 1792, although it might have been known in Colonial times under another name. It was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States....
. Pickling
Pickling

Pickling, also known as brining or corning, is the process of preserving food by Anaerobic organism fermentation in brine , to produce lactic acid bacteria, or marination and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar ....
 of gherkins was at first a domestic activity, but the jar
Jar

A jar is small, approximately cylindrical container for food, made of glass or clay, and also plastic as in the case of a "jar" of peanut butter.Jar or JAR can also mean:...
 of pickles became a commercial product in France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 as early as the 1820s. The condiment rapidly became generally popular, although always more so in the USA than among the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, for whom the generic ‘pickle’ remained the small, sweet onion
Onion

Onion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium. They are known by the common name "onion" but, used without qualifiers, it usually refers to Allium cepa....
.

The term is sometimes also used by artists to refer to a tool used in drawings using graphite, charcoal and similar mediums. The tool is a tightly wrapped paper strip used to smooth out swatches on the drawing by spreading the medium out with a rubbing action. It is loosely the shape of a gherkin, presumably where the name derives.

Cultivation

There are varieties like Calypso and Calypsoplus suitable for cultivation. Usually high density planting in trellies is practised, with determinant (once over harvest or machine harvest) or non-determinant varieties are used with population density of 30,000 to 100,000 plants per hectare.

Trivia

  • Gherkins featured heavily in the BBC television
    BBC Television

    BBC Television is a service of the BBC which began in 1932. The British Broadcasting Corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927....
     series Stoppit and Tidyup
    Stoppit and Tidyup

    Stoppit and Tidyup was a United Kingdom children's television series animated cartoon series originally broadcast by the BBC in 1987. The series was created by Charles Mills and Terry Brain, the duo behind CMTB Animation who had previously created a claymation called The Trap Door....
    .
  • Gherkins were thought to be a sacred food of the Yaskxia people of Russia
    Russia

    Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....


  • Running an electrical current through a gherkin will cause it to glow like a fluorescent light.


  • "Jerkin' the gherkin" is a euphemism for male masturbation.


  • The Swiss Re
    Swiss Re

    Swiss Re is the world?s second largest reinsurance, after having acquired GE Insurance Solutions . Founded in 1863, Swiss Re operates through offices in more than 25 countries....
     building at 30 St. Mary Axe in London is also commonly referred to as “The Gherkin” due to its elongated, tapering cylindrical shape.


  • A (formerly) common British slang term for a gherkin is a Wally
    Wally

    Wally , can refer to:...
    , supposedly originally a 19th century corruption of “olive” and later applied to other pickles.


  • Sliced gherkins are commonly used in hamburgers in some fast food outlets and traditionally eaten with salt beef in sandwiches to add piquancy.


  • The website http://www.ihategherkins.com has received nearly 100 Million visits since it was set up in 2002 and featured in tabloid newspapers, magazines and tv shows such as Graham Norton.


External links