Fermented cucumber? Interesting, down here in Slovakia it's similar recipe only with pickled cucumber (and without mushrooms). Also some people add ketchup and a drop of worcester sauce.
I've seen the terms pickling and fermenting used interchangeably so to explain:
By fermentation of cucumbers and most non-starchy veggies, I mean lacto-fermentation with just veggies and brine (salty water). They become acidy over time as lactic acid bacteria do their magic and create a probiotic. Sauerkraut or kimchi are examples of fermented white cabbage and napa.
Pickling involves using acid such as vinegar from the beginning.
In the anglophone West, most pickled products contain vinegar, even when they're labelled "kosher style", so it's simply the only term that many people are familiar with. In US, some aren't even aware that you can ferment veggies in brine.
Sure. My point is simply people can be referring to lacto-fermented cucumbers without realising it. The vinegar is often added for shelf stabilisation of fermented cukes is my understanding.
Yeah, I know the difference as we also ferment cucumbers, in the (Slovak) tartar recipe it's always pickled (in vinegar, dill etc).
Also (napa) kimchi is something of an outlier to your rule of just veggies and brine, because the napa cabbage does not contain a lot of starch, rice flour (starch) and in some recipes sugar is added to aid the fermentation. This is not needed for the sauerkraut/kysla kapusta/kapusta kwaszona as it naturally contains enough sugars for the fermenting bacteria to feast on. But this is just me being pedantic, sorry.
Fermented tastes way better imo. My aunt makes sun fermented cucumbers with horseradish and chilies. Yummy! She washes them with hot water two times and then puts them in brine.
