Yeah, I was talking to the wife's Uncle Slavek last night (hijacked the weekly call home) and he was saying much the same.
The kiszone/kwaszone thing is pretty much regional, but those regions are fairly indistinct these days, I guess partly due to the depopulation and repopulation of huge swathes of Poland over the last century or so.
In Wroclaw (South West) most folk would refer to them as kiszone, our friends from Radzyn Podlaski (East) generally refer to them kwaszone.
In common parlance however kwaszone will be, more often than not used to denote fermented gherkins and kiszone will be used to denote fermented cabbage, as cabbage ferments more strongly than gherkins.
Korniszony are the little ones, rather than the "full sized" gherkins (small cucumbers), the ones the french call cornichon (little horns). These are almost always pickled in vinegar (with the usual dill etc), not fermented and are called Korniszony Konserwowe, there doesn't appear to be a Polish word that means specifically pickled in vinager, not even marynowane.
Next time you're in a Polski Sklep have a look and I'm pretty sure you'll see Ogorki Kiszone, Ogorki Kwaszone and Ogorki Konserwowe side by side on the same shelf.
For further clarification then R&M Strybel's book "Polish Heritage Cookery" (Hippocrene Books) is pretty good (if a little pricey), but is from a merkin perspective and skips over some details. Even so, it still manages to be nearly 900 pages.
When we make them, a summer holiday ritual, Jadzia (MIL) insists on plenty of bay, ziele angielski (allspice?), fennel, garlic and horseradish root. I add peppercorns but she just tuts at me ;)
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Mon 30 May 2011, 17:11, Reply)