Breaking
FoodNerdy Recipes Management System
Tag

Raisins

Browsing
Food

Raisins, Sultanas, Currants: This is How Dried Grapes Differ

Raisins, sultanas or currants? Dried grapes hide behind the terms. Here you can find out what connects the designations and where the differences lie.

Raisins and sultanas are from the same grape variety – differences in drying

Sultanas and raisins have one important thing in common: both are made from the Sultana grape, so they’re the same grape. The difference between the designations is due to the different drying methods.

Raisins are dried in the sun for about five to seven days. This is how they get their typical dark color.
Sultanas owe their uniqueness and their light color to an important drying step: if the grapes are first dipped, they lose the wax layer on the outer skin. This makes the fruit permeable to water, so the drying time is only three to five days.
Currants are also dried grapes and therefore a type of raisin. However, they are obtained from the Greek grape variety Korinthiaki. They are also characterized by their dark color and are usually smaller than sultanas.

Treatment with sulfur makes fruit keep longer

To make the fruit last longer, raisins and sultanas are treated with sulfur dioxide during production. This is at the expense of various vitamins: explains that this primarily destroys vitamin B1 and folic acid.

The chemical treatment of the fruit can also have health consequences for humans, such as headaches or stomach problems. In this case, it is therefore advisable to use higher-quality or organic products, because sulfurization is not used here. Incidentally, currants are always treated without sulfur dioxide.

Conclusion: The varieties of raisins and sultanas differ in the drying process, but come from the same grape variety. Currants come from the Korinthiaki grape variety, but are also dried grapes. In order to make the fruits last longer, they are often sulphurized, which is why organic goods should be used.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Are Raisins Healthy? Ingredients of The Dried Grapes

Raisins are ubiquitous in muesli and trail mix – but are they healthy?

Raisins are nothing more than dried grapes: the grapes are harvested when ripe and hung up to dry until they hardly contain any water. There are different varieties, from the light sultanas to the small, dark currants.

Rock fruits like raisins are often recommended as healthy snack alternatives to sweets. In the following sections you will learn whether raisins are really healthy.

Are Raisins Healthy? These are their ingredients

Like all dried fruits, raisins mainly contain: Sugar – a full 60 percent. Therefore, it is already clear that raisins are only healthy as long as you eat them in moderation. The advantage over other sweets, however, is that the sugar from raisins does not get into your blood as quickly because raisins contain a lot of fiber (four to five percent). That means: raisins fill you up longer than other sweet snacks and make you less prone to cravings.

Above all, raisins are healthy because they contain valuable minerals and vitamins. The proportion of these nutrients is particularly high:
B vitamins: The B vitamins from B1 to B12 are irreplaceable in our body, especially for the numerous metabolic processes. Raisins contain several B vitamins, specifically B1, B3, B5, and B6.
Potassium: This mineral is especially important for muscles. Raisins contain 780 milligrams of potassium per 100 grams, which is about 20 percent of the recommended daily allowance.
Iron: Iron fulfills important tasks in the body, in particular it ensures that the cells are sufficiently supplied with oxygen. We need to consume around ten to 15 milligrams of iron every day – 100 grams of raisins already contain around 20 percent of this. Important: Your body can only absorb this large amount of iron together with vitamin C. Since raisins contain very little vitamin C, you should eat them with something containing vitamin C. How about a delicious couscous salad with peppers, raisins and a lemon dressing, for example?
By the way: Unlike fresh grapes or wine, raisins contain hardly any of the notorious secondary plant substance resveratrol, which is found in grapes and is said to have a cell-protecting effect in our body, among other things.

Are Raisins Healthy? Quality matters

Raisins have a long shelf life thanks to their sugar content – but sultanas in particular are often sulphurised. The sulphurisation should make them even more durable and ensure that the raisins do not discolour.

Attention: A sulphurization must only be declared on the packaging as soon as ten milligrams of sulphites or more are used for one kilo of raisins. You can only completely avoid sulphites if you explicitly buy unsulphured fruit. But what is the problem with sulfites? On the one hand some people do not tolerate them well, on the other hand they reduce the vitamin B1 content of the raisins.

With organic raisins, you have the best chance that they are unsulphured. By choosing to use raisins made from organically grown grapes, you also avoid using pesticides. Since grapes are susceptible to many germs and fungi, they are often heavily treated with pesticides in conventional cultivation.

Keep Reading
By
Cooking Tips

Raisins, Sultanas, Currants: Differences and Tips for Buying

Raisins, sultanas or currants – have you ever stood in front of the shelves in the supermarket or health food store and didn’t know what to take? We will explain the differences to you.

Raisins, sultanas and currants: A question of the grape variety

While raisins and sultanas come from the same grape variety and differ only in the way they are dried, currants are a completely different variety. The main differences:

Sultanas and raisins are made from the seedless, thin-skinned and particularly sweet white Sultana grape. She mostly comes from Turkey.
Smaller, purple-black grapes are used for currants. These come from Greece, preferably near Corinth – hence the name (from Greek “Korinthiaki”).
All of these dried grape varieties are now grown in other countries such as Australia, South Africa and the United States (California). Therefore, you should pay attention to the origin when buying to avoid long transport routes.

With the variety of labels on the supermarket shelf, however, the question can sometimes arise: What are raisins? If you refer to dried grapes as “raisins” regardless of their variety or drying method, that’s not wrong. It is also the common generic term for all dried grapes.

Difference between raisins and sultanas: the drying process

Depending on the drying process, the Sultana grape becomes a raisin or a sultana:

Sultanas are characterized by a special step before drying: they are dipped. That is, they are sprayed with a solution of potash and olive oil.
This loosens the wax layer on the outer shell and the fruit becomes permeable to water. This reduces the drying time to three to five days. What is left of the 95 percent water content is a light-colored, shriveled berry.
Instead, raisins dry in the sun between five and seven days and darken slightly.
Incidentally, all grapes are dried using the same method: After harvesting, the berries are hung up or placed on special drying tarpaulins. After that, the grapes only retain about 15 to 18 percent of their original water content.

In the further processing, the stalks are detached from the berries by shaking, berries that are too small are sieved out and the now brown and shriveled grapes are washed again. After drying again, the berries are usually treated with sunflower oil to prevent them from sticking together.

Are sultanas & co healthy?

Just like raisins, sultanas are healthy when consumed in moderation. They provide you with B vitamins, potassium and iron. Incidentally, your body only absorbs the latter well in combination with vitamin C, for example with peppers or citrus fruits. Currants also contain a lot of magnesium, as well as zinc and calcium.

However, the following applies to all dried grapes: They consist of around half (fruit) sugar and are correspondingly calorie bombs.

Raisins and sultanas: sulphurised or unsulphurised?

Raisins and sultanas are often sulphurised during their production to make them more durable. This must be noted on the packaging from an addition of ten milligrams per kilo. Sulfurizing means either burning sulfur to form sulfur dioxide or adding sulphur-containing compounds. However, the former is an outdated method.

Sulfurized dried fruit can sometimes cause nausea or headaches. The process also destroys the vitamin B1 it contains.
Although sulfur has an antibacterial effect and prevents fungal attack, it is not necessary from an ecological point of view to make the fruit last longer.
Therefore, when in doubt, it is advisable to reach for – usually – unsulphured and untreated organic dried fruit, for example these organic sultanas** or organic currants from Demeterhof.
By the way: Currants are usually always unsulphured. In the case of sultanas and raisins, you can recognize the sulfur from the darker color – and of course from the note on the packaging.

What should you consider when buying raisins?

You found European, unsulphured, organic raisins on the shelf? Then there is really only one consideration: How can you avoid as much plastic packaging as possible? Dried fruits have a long shelf life due to their low water content – provided they are dry and packaged reasonably airtight. Therefore, you are welcome to use the slightly larger storage pack.

Tip: Raisins are also often available in so-called unpackaged shops, where you can fill the right amount directly into the box you brought with you. Find out where the nearest unpackaged store is and stop by there for your next purchase.

Cook and bake with raisins, sultanas and currants

You can cook with raisins all year round. For example, try raisin cake, sugar-free raisin rolls, homemade broken chocolate with dried grapes or an apple and orange raw food tart as a dessert for the vegetarian Christmas menu.

Sultanas go particularly well with Namoura, the Lebanese semolina cake.

Dried grapes also go well with hearty dishes: they add a sweet note to couscous salads, lentil salads, bulgur recipes, or recipes with pointed cabbage. Slightly tart raisins and currants go well with a fruity fruit salad or mujadarra, a vegan lentil dish.

Keep Reading
By