SC - Currants or Currants???

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 17:04:31 -0500
> From: David Friedman <ddfr at best.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - Digby's Excellent Cake

> >David said the other day that zante currants aren't really currants, can
> >I get real currants anywhere?
> 
> Etymologically I think it is the other way around--raisons of corinth are
> the original "currants" and ribes fruits borrowed the name. So the dried
> currants you buy in the store probably are what a medieval recipe intends.
> I don't know how early they started calling ribes "currants;" you might
> want to check the OED to help you figure out which meaning your recipe
> intends.
> 
> Ribes currants are occasionally sold at the sort of store that has lots of
> varieties of fruit, and you can grow them.
> 
> David/Cariadoc

I'm inclined to agree with Cariadoc in the question of currants. I
believe raisins of Corinth being called currants predates the appelation
of the name "currant" to the red or black berries that share the name.
FWIW, I believe that in some regional British dialects, the word
"currant" is used to describe just about any berry, as, for instance, in
John Cleese's use of the words "red currant" interchangably with
"raspberry" in the Python routine about defending yourself against fresh
fruit. If I hadn't heard this type of thing elsewhere and at other
times, I'd have assumed Cleese forgot his lines.

In spite of that sideline, I still think that the vast majority of
period English recipes calling for currants or raisins of Corinth are
referring to dried miniature grapes.

 Adamantius
troy at asan.com
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