current affairs

[jamwan55]

whats the difference between raisins and currents

[Kingaroo]

Short answer: currants are smaller.

Long answer: I googled "raisins currants" and found many pages which have slight variations, not necessarily contradictions. Here are three; you can find more if you are careful about your spelling.

1) Raisins: The raisins you and I (americans) know and love typically come from the Thompson Seedless variety, which dry and darken in the sunlight. Currants: Currants are teeny tiny grapes that come from the Zante grape. They originally come from Greece but are now being grown in many places worldwide. Sultanas: These are the ones that cause people confusion because initially these white raisins came from the Sultana grape found in Turkey. However, nowadays most Sultanas bought and sold are simply the same Thompson seedless grapes found in our everyday variety raisin, with the exception that they are instead treated with sulphur dioxide and heated artificially, to give it that plumper texture and golden appearance. Whether or not you feel this is a big deal or not depends on your passion for sultanas.

2) Currants are very small raisins made from the Black Corinth grape (sold fresh as "Champagne grapes"). The name currant (not to be confused with the fresh berries of the same name) is probably a corruption of the word Corinth.

3) Currants, raisins and sultanas are all dried grapes (vine fruits). Raisins and sultanas are derived from varieties of white grape whereas currants are derived from a variety of purple-black grape. Currants are dried, small purple-black coloured, seedless grapes (the 'Corinth' grape),

[Royal Pollen]

heres what my Bible on food says.

The three main vine fruit, currants,raisans and sultanas, are all dried grapes. Currants are are small black grapes; sultanas are dried, white Grapes;raisans vary according to the variety but are traditionally muscatel grapes

[Miss-taken]

I always thought that raisins were dried grapes and currants are dried blackcurrants??

[CLOWN TICKLE]

So did I misstaken

[heathfield]

Both dried Corinth grapes and dried blackcurrants are sold as 'currants'. There's not a lot of difference in the final taste in, for example a cake or scone, but if not de-seeded, the number of seeds in blackcurrants make them crunchier.