SC - Re: Ingredient search- please help

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

Hauviette asks:***Someone posted (was it Bear?)
 that they believed Corinthian raisins not to 
be currants but  actually were a specific type 
of raisin. I could not for the life of me remember 
the type and rationale, if someone recognizes this 
please post in comment.

No rationale, just fact.  I was the culprit and author  of
that particular post.  What are marked as "currants" like
"Zante" currants by Sun Maid are not currants at all.  These
raisins are made from a very tiny varietal of black grapes originally
grown in the vicinity of Corinth, or "Corinth grapes".  Botanically
genuine currants come in white, red or black but you can not
make raisins from them.  They have too high a water to flesh
ratio and are primarily seen only as a jelly product and only rarely 
fresh.  To my knowledge, these Corinth grapes are what have
been used throughout the medieval and Renaissance period
in recipes calling for "currants".  Actual currants (Ribes) were 
almost certainly gathered from the wild as they were not 
domesticated until the late 15th or early 16th century.  Black
currants were the wild types growing throughout central
Europe.  Extracts and liquors (cassis) were their main use other
than as fresh berries.  Red types were domesticated (or were
developed???) in the early 17th century and the white developed
as a mutant from the red much later.  To clear up the confusion
in nomenclature, 17th and 18th century cookbooks called currants
....currants and Corinth "currants"...."raisins of the sun".

Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"