# Please help: What are sultanas & aubergines? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 7, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820 "2005-02-07T15:56:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/101 "2005-02-09T19:00:58Z")
**owlstretchingtime** says “Was he holding his plums?” **Ukulele Ike** replies with a quote from **WotNot** : “Yes, but of pumpkin-like proportions.” and comments “The mind…boggles.” Yes, it certainly does. But when they dry out, they’re prunes. Of pumpkin-like proportions. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/102 "2005-02-09T19:26:26Z")
If you want giant marrows just look here [http://www.geocities.com/sunflower\_info/Marrows.html](http://www.geocities.com/sunflower_info/Marrows.html) ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/103 "2005-02-10T00:18:44Z")
I don’t understand why anyone would want to eat marrows, then. We generally throw away a zucchini that has gotten too big; they don’t taste very wonderful and get woody. Smaller zucchinis taste better, and since anyone can grow enough zucchini to suffocate under without any effort whatsoever, we just throw the big ones on the compost heap. (If you just throw them in any corner of the garden, you’ll have volunteer zucchini everywhere the next year, and I speak from long experience, since my mother never had a proper compost heap.) Does a marrow taste better than your basic zucchini that got too big while you weren’t looking? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/104 "2005-02-10T01:19:50Z")
> [@hawthorne](#): > > As I understand it, pies in the US are mostly sweet or extremely sweet. Yes. If we hear about “pie”, we usually assume it will be a sweet pie of some sort. We have savory pies, but we usually call them pot pies. They’re cooked in mini pie pans, have a top and bottom crust, and usually have chicken or turkey with some vegetables and sauce inside them. They’re served hot. The filling has the texture of a very thick chowder. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/105 "2005-02-10T02:12:12Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Does a marrow taste better than your basic zucchini that got too big while you weren’t looking? Nope. You can stuff them with tomato and cheese and the like but really it’s not worth the bother. ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/106 "2005-02-10T02:21:40Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > FTR: a courgette is what we Americans call a zucchini. [nitpick] Can’t speak for Britain, but this is only half right in Australia. Here, we have zucchinis but also courgettes which are basically those mini-zucchinis - much thinner and only a few inches long. [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/107 "2005-02-10T09:23:24Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Does a marrow taste better than your basic zucchini that got too big while you weren’t looking? No. Marrows aren’t really a common vegetable anymore. They were popular in the days before food was imported from all parts of the globe. Now you can get year round courgettes the marrow has faded from prominence. You see them in markets in the autumn - but no one goes to the effort of importing them. It’s hard to dislike a marrow as it doesn’t really taste of anything - as other posters have said you have to add all sorts like cheese and spices to get any flavour into it, they are mainly water. They’re OK baked, but as I say they’re not really worth the effort. One reason that we still have them is that in the war we were encouraged to “dig for victory” and grow our own vegetables. Marrows grow anywhere and require no horticultural skill whatsoever - and they come back next year so they were a popular choice. This is why they’re still popular on allotments (after the raisin/currant thing I will let someone else explain to the septics the concept of allotments. Especially with relation to potting sheds). ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/108 "2005-02-10T11:15:25Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > I don’t understand why anyone would want to eat marrows, then. We generally throw away a zucchini that has gotten too big; they don’t taste very wonderful and get woody. Smaller zucchinis taste better, and since anyone can grow enough zucchini to suffocate under without any effort whatsoever, we just throw the big ones on the compost heap. (If you just throw them in any corner of the garden, you’ll have volunteer zucchini everywhere the next year, and I speak from long experience, since my mother never had a proper compost heap.) > > Does a marrow taste better than your basic zucchini that got too big while you weren’t looking? Welcome to the world of the Great British Eccentric, who will grow a vegetable to mammoth proportions, which not only will no-one eat but which was never inteneded to be eaten, just because he can, and will get a rosette for it at the church fete. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/109 "2005-02-10T11:31:07Z")
I wonder if any other countries have competitions to grow enormous vegetables (and if they do if they’re as madly competitive as they are here). [http://freespace.virgin.net/l.carter/leek.htm](http://freespace.virgin.net/l.carter/leek.htm) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/110 "2005-02-11T02:34:14Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > Welcome to the world of the Great British Eccentric, who will grow a vegetable to mammoth proportions, which not only will no-one eat but which was never inteneded to be eaten, just because he can, and will get a rosette for it at the church fete. Paging Clarence Threepwood, Earl of Emsworth and master of Blandings Castle! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DemonSpawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@DemonSpawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonSpawn)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/111 "2005-02-11T12:54:42Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > I think you are correct . Similarly the Germans produced a jam made from sugar beet. If you read accounts of British POW camps, such as Colditz ,they often talk of being issued with this stuff. It was spread on black bread that resembled chip-board . Lovely stuff ! Correct, it is - for some reason - called Rübenkraut (beet weed). It is actually not a jam, more a really thick syrup. [http://www.grafschafter.de/produkte/goldsaft.html](http://www.grafschafter.de/produkte/goldsaft.html) Back to the difference between raisins, sultanas and currants: Sultanas, as we know now, are made from a certain kind of large, green grape. Moreover they are seedless and of a light color. Raisins are made from a different kind of grape. They are darker in color. There may be seeds. Currants are made from yet another kind of grape. Currants are darker, smaller and harder than raisins or sultanas. They are also less sweet. Check out the picture (Figure 1) on this page: [http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis\_e/ware/trockfru/korinth/korinth.htm](http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/trockfru/korinth/korinth.htm) ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/112 "2005-02-11T13:07:02Z")
From that site: \>\>\>\>Currants are very frequently infested by pests. Under appropriate temperature and humidity conditions, there is a risk of infestation by maggots, mites, moths (dried fruit moth, meal moth, tobacco moth) and beetles (sap beetles, sawtoothed grain beetles and flour beetles).\>\>\>\> Still fancy some spotted dick? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/113 "2005-02-11T13:10:44Z")
Too damn right. That’s the best bit! ---
**Author:** ![DemonSpawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@DemonSpawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonSpawn)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/114 "2005-02-11T13:14:32Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > From that site: > > \>\>\>\>Currants are very frequently infested by pests. > > Under appropriate temperature and humidity conditions, there is a risk of infestation by maggots, mites, moths (dried fruit moth, meal moth, tobacco moth) and beetles (sap beetles, sawtoothed grain beetles and flour beetles).\>\>\>\> OK, maybe I should not have used a site with info from a cargo insurance’s point of view as our reference. The info there is mostly about risks when transporting stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/115 "2005-02-11T14:00:20Z")
Eureka ! I think I have solved the mystery of why these small dried grapes are called currants. The above link shows that the French name for them is Raisins de Corinthe. So a small distortion or mispronunciation of this word and corinthe is changed to currant. QED ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/116 "2005-02-11T14:11:50Z")
Really people, how hard is this as a concept : Raisins are dried grapes - all dried grapes, it’s a generic term. Currants and sultanas are both kinds of raisins, but not all raisins are either currants or sultanas. Sometimes they’re just raisins. In which case I’ll assume they’re dark but still slightly fleshy and larger than currants. I’ve never seen the _Ribes_ currants referred to as _just_ currants, there’s always a colour prefix. If I see a recipe refer to just plain “currants” I’ll assume it means “dried Corinth grapes” - see “Bun, currant, old biddies, for the use of”. **owl** , very few cookbooks are written from the point of view of non-Home Counties Brits. So in recipes, I think its the usage of people like Delia that wins out. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/117 "2005-02-11T14:18:11Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > **owl** , very few cookbooks are written from the point of view of non-Home Counties Brits. So in recipes, I think its the usage of people like Delia that wins out. Excuse me - what’s “Home Counties”? ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/118 "2005-02-11T14:26:20Z")
Where I live. The South of England around London ie Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. In short the prosperous part of the country which is also perceived as rather dull. A sort of Greater Suburbia ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/119 "2005-02-11T14:52:14Z")
> [@](#): > > I wonder if any other countries have competitions to grow enormous vegetables (and if they do if they’re as madly competitive as they are here). Of course we do. Around here it’s pumpkins. Dedicated pumpkin growers can produce humongous monsters that are big enough to put a person into, and easily weigh half a ton. A big deal at the local Topsfield Fair (In Topsfield, Massachusetts. Reportedly the oldest Fair in the US, dating back to 1818 or something) is the Giant Pumpkin Contest. Some of the winners are the biggest in the US (which tells you that other places in the US do this, too). Disney World apparently buys a huge one every year for their park, usually the biggest available. I’m sure you can Google up pictures of these. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820/120 "2005-02-11T14:53:47Z")
Topsfield Fair winners – not easily half a ton. But close: [http://www.backyardgardener.com/wcgp/nepga/1995\_topsfield.html](http://www.backyardgardener.com/wcgp/nepga/1995_topsfield.html) Some pictures: [http://www.bigpumpkins.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=112&gid=29](http://www.bigpumpkins.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=112&gid=29) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-what-are-sultanas-aubergines/288820.md?page=7)