CURRANTS

Two varieties of fruit, entirely different except in size, are known as "Currants"--one used as a fresh, and the other as a dried fruit.

The fresh currant, a small acid berry sometimes eaten raw but principally consumed in the form of jelly and cooked in pies, etc., is the fruit of a bush resembling the gooseberry bush. The most common type is the Red Currant. "Green currants" are Red currants gathered for cooking before they are ripe for the sake of their peculiar tartness. The White Currant is a similar variety produced by cultivation--it is less acid and consequently more pleasing for eating raw. The Black Currant is a separate type and of different flavor--its juice, credited with being aperitive, is used for flavoring purposes and in making wine, liqueurs, jellies, etc.

The dried currant, extensively used in cakes, etc., is a small seedless "raisin," the fruit of a species of grape vine grown principally in the Grecian Islands of Zante (hence the term "Zante Currants"), Cephalonia and Ithaca and in the vicinity of Patras. The fresh ripe fruit is also locally employed in wine manufacture.

The title "currant" is a corruption of Corinth, the name of the now unimportant Greek town of Gortho at the time when it was one of the most prosperous of Mediterranean cities. During the middle ages, currants were known as raisins de Corauntz.