raisins-msg

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raisins-msg - 5/7/20

Period raisins. Seedless raisins. Seeding raisins.

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Thank you,

Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous

Stefan at florilegium.org

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From the fb "SCA Cooks" group:

Stefan Li Rous

11/2/18

Perhaps this is well known, but I hadn't thought about it previously.

How were raisins made before seedless grapes were developed? Were the seeds left in? Was each and every seed cut out of each grape? Was the grape squeezed to expel the seed?

Here's a good video on this:

How Were Raisins Made Before Seedless Grapes?

Here's a good video on this:

https://youtu.be/xpawmgVoKqc

Jenny Sawyer

You see references in recipes about cleaning destalking and pitting raisins.

Ananda Stevens

I've seen recipes from the 1970s talking about pitting raisins; seedless raisins are a recent thing.

Eden Rain

You can just eat the seeds. They add a crunchy texture we're just not used to, but are harmless. Grape harvest bread in Italy is still made with seedy wine grapes and it's wonderful!

Jenny Sawyer

6:18am Nov 2

On recipes, that ask you to pit the raisins? Well most recently the Mincemeat recipe in my Mrs Beeton, I was looking at last weekend to make my Christmas Mincemeat.

John Hurst

2:05pm Nov 2

I have eaten grape seeds, but I really don't care for them, too bitter. I had thought that you would just spit out the seeds. I really wish that people would provide text explanations of these things, now i am stuck with having to go back and re-watch several times to try to get all the references and data sorted out as he talks pretty fast.

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya

2:07pm Nov 2

When i was a kid, lots of raisins still had seeds in them. Crunch!

Kathleen Madsen

2:20pm Nov 2

Years back, maybe '03-'04 (?), raisins on the vine were a big thing in the cheese world. Some importer had brought them over from Italy and they were sold around the holidays to add to cheese trays. They did have seeds, but they were smaller than the ones in the table grapes we usually have. I believe that they chose a different variety than we eat for table grapes, and the ones that are selected* are chosen for both their flavor when dried and the size of the seed.

These were red grapes and the resultant raisin size was large, more like a dried cherry in size. They were really pretty on a cheese board and the crunch and tannin of the seeds didn't detract from the flavor, it was hardly noticeable actually.

I've not seen them since.

*There's probably more to the selection process than that, I'd also look for shelf stability, ability to ship well, and the strong connection between the raisin and the stem because you don't want them falling off and ruining the visual of raisins on the vine.