No. 157

To Clean Currants, Malaga and Smyrna Raisins

Pour Nettoyer les Raisins de Corinthe, les Raisins de Malaga et de Smyrne

Lay the currants on a table mixing in with them some flour, rub well together, then shake them through a coarse sieve, having eight meshes so that the small currant stalks pass through; wash well and dry them, then pick them over to free them of all the gravel stones which are generally to be found in these fruits, as well as the large stalks adhering to them.

Smyrna (Sultana) raisins are cleaned the same as currants; abstain from washing them. Seed Malaga raisins and pick off the stalks.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A preparation step rather than a dish, and one that is largely obsolete: dried fruit now arrives stemmed, washed and stone-free. The method is still worth knowing if you buy bulk fruit from a market or an importer.

The flour is the whole trickRubbing dried fruit with a little flour dries the sticky surface so that stems, grit and clumped berries separate instead of smearing together. Shake the flour out through the sieve; it is a cleaning aid, not an ingredient, and any that clings will disappear in the batter.
"Eight meshes"Most likely eight openings to the linear inch, close to a 1/8-inch grid: coarse enough for stem fragments and sand to drop through while the currants ride on top. Ranhofer does not say. A standard colander is too open; a coarse drum sieve is the nearest modern stand-in.
Currants are not currantsZante currants are tiny dried grapes from Greece, unrelated to the red and black currant bushes. Nothing in this entry applies to fresh berries.
Why not to wash the sultanasSmyrna sultanas were commonly dipped in an alkaline oil solution (potash and olive oil) before drying, which gives them their gloss and helps them dry evenly. Washing would take that coating off, which may be why Ranhofer says to abstain from washing them, though he gives no reason.
Malaga raisinsThese are large muscatels from southern Spain, sold on the stem and containing seeds — hence the instruction to seed them by hand. Modern seedless muscat raisins need neither step; if you do find stemmed clusters, snip rather than pull so the fruit stays whole.
The gravel is realFruit dried on the ground or on mats picked up sand and small stones, and the warning about "gravel stones" was not a figure of speech. Sorting by hand on a pale tray is still sensible with bulk or imported fruit.
Drying afterwardWashed currants must be spread out and dried thoroughly before use. Damp fruit sinks in a cake batter and will not take up a coating of flour in a pudding.

A Little History

This is one of the short "Elementary Methods" entries that open Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the compendium of his roughly three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. Entries like this one exist because the book was written for a professional brigade working from raw commodities: dried fruit came in boxes and frails from the Greek islands, Izmir and Málaga, unsorted and often still on the stem and gritty, and cleaning it was the sort of task given to an apprentice. The three names are trade names tied to shipping origin as much as to variety — Zante currants from the Ionian islands, sultanas shipped from the Ottoman port of Smyrna (now Izmir), and seeded muscatels from Málaga in Andalusia — and their appearance side by side is a reminder of how much of a late-nineteenth-century American kitchen's pantry arrived by sea. Mechanical cleaning equipment and, later, seedless varieties made most of the procedure unnecessary.