How to Use Currants. Fresh currants can be used like blueberries, and somewhat like blackberries or raspberries, in tarts and pies, and other desserts, such as sorbets and puddings. Use them fresh in fruit salads, particularly berry mixes, or to garnish desserts with their pretty color.
Why was currant banned in the US?
The growing and importation of currants were banned in New York and other parts of the United States for more than half a century because they were thought to help spread a fungus that threatened the timber industry. … This has been such a successful venture that I recently planted 17 more acres of black currants.
What can I do with dried currants?
Dried currants make good decoration for gingerbread cookies, and are delicious stirred into scone dough. In savory cooking, stir dried currants into rice pilaf, or into stuffing for chicken, turkey, or game hens, to add texture and subtle sweetness.
What can I do with yellow currants?
Edible Uses The berries are an excellent native food source by themselves and are also useful in recipes for their wonderful flavor sweetened into jams, jellies, pies, or even currant ice cream.
What is the difference between currant and current?
Currant, current and courant are similar in pronunciation, if not usage. Currant is a raisin-like fruit that is used in pastries and jams, whereas current is both a noun (often referring to flows of electric, air, and water) and an adjective (occurring in the present moment).
How do you eat currents?
While they are sour, they tend to be less sour than gooseberries so they can be eaten raw: sprinkle them on your morning yogurt or just eat them by the handful. But they do get deliciously sweet and juicy when cooked, too. De-stem and fold them into muffin batter in place of other berries or use them to make jam.
Why are gooseberries illegal?
Why were gooseberries illegal? Gooseberries were once banned in the U.S. because they contributed to a tree-killing disease called white pine blister rust that was decimating these trees. It had a huge impact on white pine lumber-reliant economies like Maine.
What are currants called in America?
A currant is a type of raisin. Raisins are dried grapes. There are plenty of varieties, but in the U.S., raisin typically refers to dark-colored dried large grape. As currants come from Black Corinth grapes, golden raisins come from sultana grapes.
Are blackberries and blackcurrants the same thing?
As nouns the difference between blackcurrant and blackberry is that blackcurrant is a shrub that produces small, very dark purple, edible berries while blackberry is a fruit-bearing shrub of the species (taxlink) and some hybrids.
What is the difference between sultanas and currents?
Sultanas are made from seedless green grapes. They are often dipped in a solution prior to drying, which speeds up the process. They are often the juiciest and lightest in color. Currants are made from small grape varieties.
What is a dried raisin?
A raisin is a dried grape. … In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word raisin is reserved for the dark-colored dried large grape, with sultana being a golden-colored dried grape, and currant being a dried small Black Corinth seedless grape.
What are sultanas made from?
Sultanas are a type of raisin. You might hear them called golden raisins. Like most raisins in the United States, sultanas are made from Thompson Seedless grapes. They are medium-sized green grapes and are grown primarily in California.
What is the difference between a berry and a currant?
Most people think of apples and pears when they refer to fruits. Berries are also fruits but they have a juicy pulp surrounding the seed or seeds. Blueberries, black, red and white currants are true berries as the pulp surrounds the seeds.
Are currant berries poisonous?
Ingestion of even a small amount of grapes or raisins (including Zante currants) can result in severe, acute kidney failure. Although the mechanism of action is not clearly understood as to how these foods are poisonous, ingestion can result in anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, and potentially acute renal failure.
Are currants and gooseberries the same?
Currants and gooseberries are two closely related species within the genus Ribes. … Currants and gooseberries can be easily distinguished by the presence or absence of thorns; gooseberries usually have thorns, while currants do not. Ribes plants are long-lived perennial shrubs that are cold-hardy, some to USDA Zone 2.
What is a current currant?
Should I use current or currant? These two words sound the same, but have totally different meanings. Current refers to something happening now, or something that flows. Currant refers to a type of edible berry.
What is the Homograph of current?
The answer is simple: currant, current are homophones of the English language.
What is the meaning of an electric current?
electric current, any movement of electric charge carriers, such as subatomic charged particles (e.g., electrons having negative charge, protons having positive charge), ions (atoms that have lost or gained one or more electrons), or holes (electron deficiencies that may be thought of as positive particles).
Are red currants illegal?
Did you know that the growing of Red Currants was banned in the United States in the early twentieth century? Red currants are a small, glossy, bright red berry. … The federal ban was lifted in 1966, but several northern states continued to prohibit the cultivation of such berries until the early twenty-first century.
Are all currants edible?
The berries of all species in the Ribes genus are technically edible (they are not poisonous), but some are grown particularly for their edible fruit. … Black currants have dark-colored berries that are considered an acquired taste by many when raw, though they are quite popular for pies and preserves.
Are currants berries?
Raisins, sultanas, and Zante currants are all sweet dried fruits that stem from different varieties of vine-grown grapes, while currants really are a fresh bush-grown berry that is tart rather than sweet.
Why is it illegal to grow red currants?
The federal government had banned the growing of black and red currants in 1911 when the burgeoning logging industry put pressure on lawmakers to eliminate the currants because they were thought to be an intermediate host of white pine blister rust.
Why is growing currants illegal?
Why is it illegal to grow currants in the US? … They were banned by the US Department of Agriculture because they carried the white pine blister rust disease. This fungus threatened to wipe out the pines in the US, so all Ribes were banned to protect the logging industry at the time.
Is black currant illegal?
Blackcurrant bushes were grown in America back in the 1629s, but in 1911, the professional cultivation of the plant was banned. It is a carrier of a fungus called white pine blister rust. Hence, blackcurrant was declared illegal to protect pine forests.
Why are raisins called raisins?
The word raisin dates back to Middle English and is a loanword from Old French; in Old French and French, raisin means grape. while a raisin in French is called a raisin sec, a dry grape. The Old French word in turn developed from Latin racemus, a bunch of grapes, The origin of the Latin word is unclear.
Why is Ribena banned in America?
The plant acts as a host for the white pine blister rust that threatened the timber industry. In 1911, the federal government banned the cultivation, sale and transport of blackcurrants to protect the white pine. Government programs systematically destroyed blackcurrant plants by chemical spraying.
Can you buy currents in the US?
The US Department of Agriculture had no choice but to have black currants banned because the plants became a vector for a disease that threatened to annihilate all pines in America. It might seem extreme, but this measure was necessary to save the logging industry at that time.
Is a black raspberry a Blackberry?
Botanically, black raspberries and blackberries are related, but they’re completely different fruits. Black raspberries have a very short growing season, while blackberries are more widely available year-round.
Is blackcurrant a bramble?
Blackberry. A fruit-bearing shrub of the species Rubus fruticosus and some hybrids. The fruit of several species of bramble (Rubus); also, the plant itself. …
What is black currant ice cream made of?
How to make Black Currant Ice Cream. This is a simple egg/custard free ice cream recipe. Milk and heavy whipping cream (or half and half cream) are combined with organic agave syrup and vanilla extract.