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

[rugessnome]

technically we have mincemeat in the US (though I think one brand or at least type got discontinued some time since 2020) but like ...actually all forms of currants, although the dried raisins de Corinthe grape type are probably most feasible to find, it's not very common, or popular. I don't know if this will change with millennial and onward food explorations, but I get the impression that that kind of dark sweet is out of fashion here.

And making the Complete Ball Book... recipe for (meatless*) mincemeat (which is most of what I personally have eaten for mincemeat) is actually why I first ever bought the dried grape currants... (and sherry and brandy. possibly even the golden raisins...)

*historically it did contain meat. this is not reasonable to preserve in a water bath as that recipe is, so it isn't included, and in any case if meatless mincemeat is out of fashion, meat-ed mincemeat is even moreso.

[pseudomonas]

I don't bother about water bath preservation, I work on the basis that if it's got enough rum in it, it'll keep just fine :D My recipe is basically sultanas (and/or raisins), currants, diced apple, melted fat, mixed spices, rum, dark sugar, and lemon juice. maybe some citrus zest.

I know historically it had meat in, but these days that variety is pretty much only for history nerds; you wouldn't put it in your normal mince pies and expect people not to pass comment. Sorry to hear it's going out of fashion!

[kaberett]

You are in fact speaking to a culinary history nerd!

......... and in fact Ottolenghi sell meat-containing mince pies and then the long-suffering front-of-house staff do the very patient yes-it-has-MEAT-in-it explanation absolutely on autopilot any time someone audibly considers buying one.....

[pseudomonas]

No offence whatsoever meant to culinary history nerds! But if someone offered me a mince pie without qualifying the offer I would, despite being a strict vegetarian, eat it without asking any questions, given that even beef suet is pretty rare these days.

[ludy]

As a vegetarian who does ask the question, my experience is that bought mince pies and homemade pies made with bought mincemeat are usually (though very much not always) vegetarian as standard - but homemade pies made with homemade mincemeat still have (beef) suet in at least 75% of the time. So presumably we are encountering different baking sub-cultures?

[pseudomonas]

Entirely possibly so.

[alexseanchai]

meanwhile, because Australia is also separated by a common language:

I've had this confusion with Americans before and my experience is that if you say "mince", whether they automatically assume you're talking about fruit or meat seems to be regional. Even if they do assume meat they usually assume pork or chicken, whereas in Australia the default mince assumption would be beef or lamb (although those others are available, just less commonly eaten). Every American I've heard talk about beef mince has instead called it ground beef.

— derinthescarletpescatarian