Ingredient

Raisins

Raisins, sultanas and currants are all dried grapes and they are not interchangeable. They come from different grapes, are dried in different ways, and behave differently in a cake. Most recipes that specify one mean it.

The three, told apart

Raisin

Dried dark grape, usually Thompson Seedless, sun-dried until brown. Large, chewy, mildly sweet.

Sultana

Dried from a pale seedless grape, often treated to keep the colour golden. Softer, sweeter, juicier, and it plumps up faster.

Currant

Dried Black Corinth grape — tiny, dark, intense and slightly tart. Nothing whatever to do with blackcurrants, which are a different plant entirely.

Golden raisin

A raisin dried with sulphur dioxide to keep it pale. Sold as a sultana in some markets, which adds to the confusion.

Muscatel raisin

Dried muscat grapes, often still on the stem, sometimes with seeds. Much more aromatic and worth buying for a cheeseboard.

Why the name in a recipe matters

Currants are small enough to distribute evenly through a batter and tart enough to cut sweetness. Sultanas are soft and plump and give a juicy pocket. Raisins are chewier and more assertive in texture.

A traditional British fruit cake uses all three deliberately, and the reason is textural rather than sentimental: three sizes give three different eating experiences in the same mouthful.

Swap currants for raisins in a scone and you get large chewy lumps where you wanted small tart specks. It is not wrong, but it is a different biscuit.

Soaking, and stopping them sinking or burning

Two problems, related.

1. Soak dried fruit in hot water, tea, rum or orange juice for at least twenty minutes before adding it to a wet batter. Unsoaked fruit draws moisture out of the crumb.
2. Drain thoroughly and pat dry. Wet fruit added to a batter makes it heavy.
3. Toss the drained fruit in a spoonful of the recipe's flour before folding it in. This helps it stay suspended.
4. Do not slacken the batter more than the recipe says. Fruit sinks in loose mixtures however you treat it.
5. For anything grilled, fried or baked hot and fast, fold fruit into the middle rather than leaving it exposed. Dried fruit on a surface burns quickly and turns bitter.

Beyond baking

• In a pilaf or a biryani, fried briefly in the fat before the rice goes in.
• With spinach and pine nuts, the Catalan and Sicilian treatment, where sweetness works against bitterness.
• In a tagine or a Persian stew, alongside meat and warm spice.
• In a chutney, where they melt away and thicken the mixture.
• Plumped in vinegar as a sharp-sweet garnish for a rich dish, which is a very useful trick.
• In a stuffing for pork, chicken or squash.
• Soaked in rum and folded through ice cream, which is the whole of rum and raisin.

Common questions