Today's dismay: currants

[kaberett]

From the department of "divided by a common language": earlier today I was Very Upset about the US use of "coffee cake", which is apparently not a cake flavoured with coffee but rather a (style of) cake eaten with coffee.

(The recipe blog intro writes itself, really; things I am already considering include some kind of poppyseed coffee cake and of course rhubarb coffee cake, which is what precipitated this particular discovery.)

This was upsetting enough by itself but Subsequent Digressions lead to the discovery that apparently in North America "currants" with no other specifiers by default means Ribes, probably blackcurrant, and not, you know, the dried grape.

... via going "hey, this EYB recipe specifies 'currants' as an ingredient for teacakes, but I've previously been informed that that means Ribes fruit not dried grapes, surely some mistake?" and getting back, approximately, "what makes you think dried grapes are relevant??? the version of the recipe in the Guardian just says 'currants'??????"

(The linking step was being Extremely Indignant about having it patiently explained to me that "coffee cake" is like "tea cake". Apparently BUT THE FRUIT SHOULD BE SOAKED IN TEA THOUGH is not a robust defence.)

Comments

[kaberett]

Bonus: I'm particularly baffled that blackcurrants are apparently the default NAm Ribes, because in my dialect of German Ribisel -- "little Ribes" -- is the word for redcurrants...

[wildeabandon]

*screams in Yorkshire* Coffee cakes are nothing like teacakes. Teacakes are bread.

[mme_n_b]

I'm in California, have never seen dried black currants, it's always red.

[starlady]

I don't think we have blackcurrants in the States, I've only ever seen red.

P.S. Why don't you call dried grapes "raisins"? Grapes aren't currants! :-)

[starlady]

Wait...a teacake is not a cake?

[mme_n_b]

We have them, and we have white ones also. You need to shop in an East European store to find them, though. They are generally just advertised as "European".

[starlady]

White currants? Amazing, I had never heard of them before.

And yes, after I posted that I was like, "Wait...I think I'm wrong." My grocery store lists several currant products, which are either undifferentiated or black currants. I feel like I've seen red currants mostly in jam or at farmer's markets.

[recessional]

That wasn’t the way I was pointing out that they’re the same; I was referencing the language construction.

[recessional]

To be clear, it was not a robust defence because when I pointed it out as an example of “this is a language construction of meaning that arises from common usage”, Alex immediately saw exactly what I meant fast enough to go HOW DARE bc it messed up the (playful) insistence that all of this was just Us Being Weird.

And didn’t manage to come up with the “WELL THE FRUIT SHOULD BE SOAKED—“ until some time later.

[phi]

Wait, when recipes in the Guardian say "currants" they mean dried grapes? Like small dried red grapes (raisins) or large dried green grapes (sultanas)? Is "currants" in British English different from redcurrants or blackcurrants?

[madgastronomer]

There is A History there, though I've forgotten a lot of the details. Basically, there was a plant disease that was attacking blackcurrants, and so just when the US might have imported a bunch and made blackcurrant flavored stuff in bulk... they couldn't. Which is why Concord grape took over as The Flavor for things for so long.

And properly, those are "zante currants", a small type of dried grape, not just regular raisins.

[madgastronomer]

Dried "currants" in the US are "zante currants", a dried type of small grape, not regular raisins.

[phi]

Thank you!

[madgastronomer]

You're welcome!

[sporky_rat]

I have never in my life seen a Ribes for sale, but plenty of raisins and the weird little not actually currents but raisins labeled as currents.

Figuring out Welsh cakes was hard.

[conuly]

Specifically, it infects currants, gooseberries... and pine trees, affecting the much more profitable Christmas tree harvest, so importation of those plants was banned for many years and still is in some states.

[conuly]

Specifically, coffee cake should have crumbs. And possibly walnuts, but not dried fruit, I don't care wtf this recipe author was smoking when she said that.

...poppyseeds are a distinct maybe.

[madgastronomer]

Oho! Information I either did not have or had forgotten. Thank you!

[ewt]

Ah, yes: the small horrible little tiny grape currants (that go in e.g. currant buns), Vs the small horrible sharp fresh fruit (that I don't think I have ever seen dried.)

I wonder if my Near Allotment grapes would make decent currants. The fruit certainly isn't right for table use and the wine attempts have also been very poor (but I do now have several litres of vinegar); I'm told by the allotment Neighbour Who Lies that it's a variety grown for leaves, but a) the leaves aren't that big really b) she lies c) a person can only eat so many dolmades.

[wildeabandon]

They are in the south, but in Yorkshire a teacake is a soft white bread roll - the sort that you might call a barm or a butty elsewhere.

[wildeabandon]

Fair. Although I can't quite figure out how that works for the Yorkshire version, because tea is the evening meal, not the mid afternoon one, and you'd be a lot more likely to eat teacakes for the morning or midday meals.

[me_and]

I'm used to "teacake" meaning a fruited bread roll, probably toasted and buttered for breakfast. Which is an obvious and sensible nomenclature, unlike this "coffee cake" nonsense

[ludy]

My Mum told me that when she was a child during WW2 and the period of extreme rationing immediately afterwards she and her friends were encouraged to pick red and black currants to be dried and used in baking (as well as to make cordials that were recommended nationally as a source of Vitamin C for growing children). And how glad they were when proper (dried grape) currants became available.
So the American usage is effectively a FamineFood

[highlyeccentric]

Meanwhile in Australia: an apple-flavoured cake might be referred to as either a coffee cake OR a tea cake, which means you can also have a coffee-flavoured tea cake if you so desire.

[ludy]

In the UK rasins sultanas and currants are three different (and specific) kinds of dried grape. Which sometimes get collectively described as "dried vine fruit" in food labelling