BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas

Subject: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: GUEST,Dazbo
Date: 28 Sep 05 - 11:17 AM

I have been informed by a USAian friend that the USA only has raisins but not currants and sultanas. Is this true? Or do you have them and just have three varieties of raisin?

Confused of England

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Sep 05 - 12:01 PM

Untrue. We have all three. Craisins also...dried cranberries. Both red and green currants grow wild here. Sultanas have to be cultivated, or buy grapes from store and make your own. You can also buy sultanas.

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: MMario
Date: 28 Sep 05 - 12:33 PM

from a cooking website:

There are three common names for raisins in the English-speaking world — sultanas, currants, and raisins. Of course, sutanas and currants are raisins — that is, dried grapes — and among purists the word raisin is supposed to be used for any raisin that is not a sultana or a currant. But that doesn't always happen.

Currants are tiny raisins from the zante grape, and are supposed to have been first grown on the island of Corinth in Greece. Generally, currants are more tart than other raisins.

Sultana raisins were originally the product of the Sultana grape, which grew in Turkey. But in this country, 95% of the grapes used for raisin production are the Thompson Seedless variety, which dry and darken in the sunlight, producing the common raisin. The same variety of grape, however, treated with sulphur dioxide and heated artificially stays lighter, moister, and plumper, and these are what are sold here as golden raisins or sultanas. Theoretically, sultanas are sweeter and less acid than other raisins.

"currants" is confusing - especially since a dried zante grape looks more like a currant then a grape.

In the US I think you see more "golden Raisens" marketed then you do "Sultanas".

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Sep 05 - 12:40 PM

Well, the currant bushes around here sure don't look like grapes!

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: MMario
Date: 28 Sep 05 - 12:45 PM

agreed, Sorcha - that's why I said that "currants" is confusing. the dried fruit marketed as "currants" is actually a dried grape.

The fresh currant - whether redcurrant, white currant or blackcurrant are botanically ribes. A relative of the gooseberry.

But you *can* get dried Ribes currants as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Sep 05 - 12:50 PM

OK....that is settled then! Ribus vs. Vitus! Let the games begin! LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 12:32 PM

To make matters in our dried fruit universe even more confusing, there is an agressive movement to rename prunes as "dried plums"----

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: MMario
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 12:40 PM

no,no,no.no! There is a big difference between prunes and dried plums!

Prunes are Oval and are dried with the pit in. Plums are round and are dried in halves with the pits OUT. Or salted with pits in (but those are the tiny varieties...

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 12:52 PM

Renaming prunes as dried plums may be botanically correct- I don't know - but as M'sieu Ted and MMario said above, they certainly are not the same in practice. Their flesh texture and taste are very different. And in the spring there are few blossoms prettier than a prune orchard. In Oregon I have some hillside property. Below me is a prune orchard and in the spring it is a delicate sea of froth.

When I was a kid our family orchard had many varieties of fruitbearing trees, with 3 or 4 trees given over to each. There was one we called a 'silver prune'. Is anyone familiar with that? It was a goldish color, shaped like a prune but somebody said that it was actually a plum.

I read once that if you are unsure whether it is a plum or is a prune, boil it. The prune will be sweet, the plum will be tart.

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: MMario
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 12:58 PM

botanically plums and prunes are the same thing - and they crossbreed at the drop of a hat - (since they aren't actually crossbreeding) - a seedling from a "prune" may well be a "plum" and vice versa. Generally whether they are classed as prune or plum is usually by shape, texture and whether tart or sweet predominates in the taste.

If I recall the 'Silver Prune' was generally eaten out of hand - didn't dry well - which makes it a plum in many peoples minds.

(Can you tell I studied this stuff at one point?)

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Charmion
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 01:21 PM

And just to make things really weird, I buy "golden Thompson" raisins for my annual fruitcake frenzy.

In Ontario, "sultanas" are small, brown raisins that, if packed without added oil, will form a solid brick. "Currants" (raisins de Corinthe in French) are, as described, small and black -- and quite unrelated to the red and black currants (Ribes cultivars) grown for jam and jelly. "Raisins" are all dried fruits of the grape family.

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: pdq
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 01:36 PM

In the western part of the United States, the term "currant" usually refers to dried fruit from the gooseberry plant. Quite expensive now. I checked with Merriam-Webster Online and found the following definition. They call the Ribes (as opposed to Vitus) type a "red currant":

"One entry found for red currant.

Main Entry:        red currant
Function:        noun
: either of two currants (Ribes sativum and R. rubrum) often cultivated for their fruit; also : the fruit"


Out of curiosity, I checked what they had to say about the Zante grape and the Zante currant. Nothing available, but their suggestions for an alternate search seem a bit humorous:

Suggestions for zante grape:

         1. centigrade
         2. centigram
         3. centaureas
         4. centered
         5. Sainte-Therese
         6. centigrams
         7. scene-stealer
         8. saunterer
         9. Szent-Gyorgyi
        10. Saint-Germain

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: gnomad
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 02:21 PM

I was sure I had read this before, several relevant links here Deja vu?

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 04:56 PM

There is now no difference-MMario--the California Prune Board has changed its name to the California Dried Plum Board after the cold realization that, while people actually like prunes, they don't buy or eat them, because the name is "yucky"--

Just to show you what a compulsive person I am, I actually called the Dried Plum Board, and the representative told me that they made the change four years ago. She told me that, at the time,
there was a certain amount of "Oh, come on, this is really silly" reactions--A Texas TV station went so far as to set up a blind test to prove that it made no difference--only it turned out that when people were given dried plums, most people thought they were sweet and tasty, while they disliked the prunes, and found them dry, bitter, etc. Only thing was that the dried plums and the prunes came out of the same box.

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 10:17 PM

Well, I guess I have to admit that Yuba City's "California Prune Festival" was regarded as a joke. Now that it's the "California Dried Plum Festival," it regarded as more of a joke, but the growers feel their self-esteem has been rescued.
It's too bad people laugh at the festival - it usually has great music - and all the prunes you can eat.
-Joe Offer in Northern California, the Land of the Euphemism-

(and yes, we have wild currants in the ravine next door)

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 10:17 AM

Read my post from a former thread about siltanas, raisins and currants

Bon appetit
Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 10:22 AM

Oh ... sultanas!

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: M.Ted
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 03:30 PM

It isn't about self-esteem, Joe--it is about money. Americans like dried plums, and they hate prunes. Incidentally, the good folks of the California Dried Plum Board are over in Sacremento, and I'll bet they'd be happy to tell you as much as you'd ever want to know about "The Dried Fruit formerly known as Prunes"--

Subject: RE: BS: Raisins, Currants and Sultanas
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 05:07 PM

As an aside, after stepping out of the showers at the gym when the water had been cold, my brother said "my plums look like prunes!"