In BE a cucumber is the long green thing you can slice and use in a salad. I'm not sure what a "Schmorgurke" would be, maybe "marrow", but cucumber = (Salat-)Gurke is definitely correct in BE. (I believe a German synonym is "Schlangengurke")

So, that's how the corrected entry should look like. "Slicing cucumber" if one wants to be explicit.

@ Dragon
"Schlangengurke" can indeed be used for some sorts of very long cucumbers, but it is as well the name for "snake gourds" (Trichosanthes cucumerina var. anguina). These are also called "club gourd" or "long tomato".

I only know a difference between cucumber (which is the long variety, sliced, quartered, hollowed out or whatever tickles your fancy),i.e. Salatgurke and a gherkin (Gewuerzgurke) the short ones you find pickled in glasses) and then there are Cornichons (the really tiny ones, also pickled and horrible to my taste). Then there are of course the gourds, followed by marrows.

I have never heard "slicing cucumber" as a name for a cuke, but then I'm far from an agricultural expert. Certainly not in daily usage. Am I the only one?? Even if it is the official name, I think it would generally be referred to as cucumber.

Pickles, gherkins etc, down the line, in jars.

@RES-can: If my wife hit me over the head with a gherkin, I'd smile at her. If she hit me over the head with a cucumber I'd contact my lawyer ... ;-)

I'm not 100 per cent sure but I think in Germany we call them:

"Salatgurke" - cucumber
"Gewürzgurke" - gherkin

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

@Wolfman, I thought I said the same thing you did?
"Salatgurke" - cucumber
"Gewürzgurke" - gherkin (may also be pickles - our gherkins are really small)

If your wife hits you over the head with a cucumber, that must be one huge cucumber for you to call the lawyer...
Of course a lot of little gherkins WITH the jar, might do the trick :-)

Res: I agree.

Based on the pictures provided by hv in the linked discussion, I tentatively conclude the following (for US usage):
Salatgurke=english cucumber
Schmorgurke=cucumber, slicing cucumber (at least the picture of a Schmorgurke looks exactly like the standard cucumber available in US supermarkets)

http://www.foodsubs.com/Squcuke.html

Nach dieser Webseite ist slicing cucumber der Oberbegriff für verschiedene Sorten von Salatgurken.

Im Supermarkt hier in den USA habe ich allerdings immer nur die Namen der jeweiligen Sorten, wie z.B. Englisch cucumber/hothouse cucumber gesehen. Den Begriff slicing cucumber habe ich bisher noch nicht gesehen.

@ all
I agree with you that "slicing cucumber" is not a term of everyday usage. (So it should not replace the existing entry, but nevertheless it maybe should be added.)

The same is true for the use of "Schmorgurke" in German, which I also hardly ever hear. If you see a "Schmorgurke", in German you would call it first simply "Gurke" and then maybe "Salatgurke". Only if you know what you are talking about, because you know how to cook a cucumber (which here hardly anybody does) or if you are able to classify different sorts of cucumbers, because you are a hobby gardener or vegetable salesman etc., you would use the term "Schmorgurke".

I had never heard of either a slicing cucumber (I might even picture a vegetable wielding a knife) or an English or hothouse cucumber, and my impression is that the word 'gherkin' is probably more BE than AE. For me, if it's in a salad it's a cucumber, if it's in a jar it's a pickle, and neither one tastes all that good.

However, a web search reveals that in the context of gardening, it's possible to distinguish between a 'slicing cucumber' and a 'pickling cucumber.' Maybe we could mark those as [agr.] or something?

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswe...

To sum up the discussion so far: There are at least three levels of distinction.

#1 The general term for any sort of the plant is: cucumber - Gurke

#2 The most commonly known distinction is between "Salatgurke" = "cucumber" and "Gewürzgurke" = "gherkin"

#3 When making a finer distinction into three main groups of sorts, a "specialist" would call them:

"Salatgurke" - "slicing cucumber" (BE/AE), "english cucumber" (AE)
"Schmorgurke" - "ridge cucumber" (BE), "slicing cucumber" (AE/BE)
"Einlegegurke" - "gherkin"

#4 Within these three groups, the sorts are distinguished by the name of their specific hybrid.

spcification after the comment of hm-us

For #3:
"Einlegegurke" - "pickling cucumber"

I agree with the proposal to put an [agr.] after all terms under #3

Also, eine Salatgurke und eine Schmorgurke sind wirklich zwei verschiedene Dinge. Sie sehen unterschiedlich aus und schmecken auch verschieden. Die Schmorgurke ist mindestens doppelt so dick wie eine Salatgurke, die Schale ist zart grün-gelb gestreift. Eine Schmorgurke kann man auf keinen Fall roh essen (sie heißt ja nicht umsonst SCHMORgurke), sie hat dicke Kerne in der Mitte, die man unbedingt entfernen muss, da sonst das ganze Gericht bitter schmecken würde. Auch die Schale muss entfernt werden, da sie dick und zäh ist. Hier in Hamburg essen wir sie traditionell mit Zwiebeln und Tomaten geschmort mit Bratwurstklöschen.
In Kalifornien habe ich gesehen, dass Salatgurken als fresh cucumber angeboten wurden.

Ich komme aus Hessen und habe noch nie von einer Schmorgurke gehört (und wir haben eine großen Gemüsegarten). Nach der Beschreibung von Goldie würde ich so was auch nicht als Gurke bezeichnen (ganz davon abgesehen ob es botanisch zu den Gurken gehört), sonder als eine Art Kürbis.

I would beg to differ from hv's summary, namely to state that "slicing cucumber" is BE/AE- I have never heard the term used in BE, and a google search for "Slicing cucumber" on uk sites only gets 225 hits (which includes those talking about someone slicing cucumbers etc.=.

As far as I can tell, in BE at least, "Cucumber" is "Salatgurke"

An Tobias: Das mit dem "Kürbis" ist gar nicht mal so falsch. Tatsächlich gehören Gurken ganz allgemein zu den Kürbisgewächsen (genau wie übrigens Zucchinis und Melonen).

Schmorgurke

Eine kleine Variante der Salatgurke, nur 15 cm lang und bis maximal 250 Gramm schwer wird als Minigurke auf dem Markt angeboten. Sie besitzt einen sehr aromatischen Gurkengeschmack. Als Schmorgurken werden Freilandgurken mit einem besonders festen, weniger wasserreichen Fruchtfleisch im Handel angeboten. Sie eignen sich, wie der Name schon vermuten lässt, gut zum schmoren, da ihr festes Fruchtfleisch nicht so schnell zerfällt wie bei herkömmlichen Gurken.

Habe ich nach langer Suche bei http://wellness.encyclopedia-wiki.org/Schmorg...
gefunden. Diese Definition kann ich unterschreiben.