To make it better.
True and I won’t apologise
Pretty sure African food uses it, too.
Come to think of it, what culture doesn’t use them?
Never ate Chinese food with raisins
Sealand
Whatever dude, now I can’t stop thinking about Grandma’s cinnamon-raisin bread
Alright, bear with me here.
Back in the middle ages Europeans didn’t have access to sugarcane. Because of that, they never even thought to try to breed sugary beets and process those into sugar. The same was true for tree sap or any other possible source of sugar, because why the hell would it even occur to them if they’d never seen sugar?
If a person in the middle ages wanted to make something sweet, their choices were to add honey or to add fruit. Honey was expensive, and the vast majority of the population of Europe were peasants. Honey wasn’t something they’d have around all the time. While fruit was way easier to come by, it was only available seasonally. So how do you make a sweet cake in the middle of winter? Dried fruit!
So here’s the big kicker about putting raisins in shit: it’s been unnecessary for four goddamned centuries. There might be an occasional dish here or there that’s been made the same way since before sugar was available, but there’s no fucking excuse for it in like 95% of dishes. We live in an age where I - a regular dude who isn’t particularly wealthy - can go to the grocery store a mile away and find a dozen kinds of produce that were shipped from the other side of the planet where they’re in season. There hasn’t been an excuse to ruin perfectly innocent cookies with raisins for hundreds of years.
I always think of white people as the ones complaining about raisins in food. So many delicious savory dishes with raisins from the Middle East or India provoke strong reactions from western pallets used to food that only does 1 thing, rather than combining multiple flavours.
Yeah that’s strange, I always associated raisins in food as something ranging from Morocco to Bangladesh. Not the whitest countries ever.
Imho in general European food isn’t very keen on sweet and salty mixes. Except for the USA who does it all wrong smh.
We have a few potato and apple combinations in the Rhineland.
Also goose with quince or pear are present in french cuisine.
I think traditional European cooking has many similarities with south med/ near east cooking. Don’t lob us in with modern American randomness.
I’m not very familiar with German cooking though (if that’s what you meant by Rhineland) so if you got some tips and/or must tries please enlighten me :3
edit: I removed most of my message since it added nothing to the discussion.
You can find isolated examples from western cuisines (often rich people food) but mixing savoury and sweet is still an exception. You don’t get things like how palm sugar is used in so many savory staples from SE Asian. Applesauce or quince paste aren’t as ubiquitous in western food as chutney is in Indian.
I’ve also just met way more westerners who talk about salty/sweet mixes being gross. Raisins in rice, pineapple on pizza and fruit in salad are all things I’ve heard (mostly americans or australians) react strongly to.
I can not agree. As I said, potato and apple meet in half of my regional dishes. And those are farmer’s food, not rich.
Scandinavian and Alpine dishes love lingonberry sauce on dark meat or schnitzel.
I think the best way, is to not think of “western cuisine” as a thing that exists uniformly.
PS: obviously we cook differently than SE Asia, but red cabbage is sweet, carrots are sweet and caramelised onions are sweet. And they are really often used with savory dishes.
I was thinking “have these guys never had an empanada?”
Raisins inside empanadas should be a sin- I don’t like having a sweet surprise in what should be a mouthwatering savoury meal
Raisins in empanadas aren’t universal. Here in colombia they don’t usually include them.
I learned how to make empanadas so that I could make them without the raisins my mom would add.
Seriously! The only reason oatmeal cookies get a bad rap is because of the fucking raisins!
Oatmeal chocolate chip, when you can find them, are awesome.
Any food where raisins would actually work, dried cranberries or blueberries would be 100x better. This would be things like pastries, bagels, trail mix, etc. Not stuffing, tuna, mac-n-cheese or other savory dishes.
No one ever needs to question if what they just bit into was a rat turd or a fly.
Couscous with blueberries sounds quite weird
That would be more on the savory side, given that it usually has a lot of garlic in it. Though, if it weren’t, cranberries would work better.
I’m convinced that raisins are only popular because they were a luxury food for our grandparents and they only exist in these dishes because that’s what our grandparents thought rich people would do with raisins when they were kids.
Bruh raisins, especially ones a little sour are fire in rice
Unexpected pastry raisins should be considered a war crime.
Thank you for mentioning unexpected. Oatmeal raisin cookies are good, but when you’re expecting a chocolate chip the raisin surprise is disgusting.
Honestly, biting into a chocolate chip when you are expecting a raisin is also disgusting.
Nah, that’s a happy little accident.
BOOOOO! Raisins are valid (at times)!
Raisins should be considered a war crime.
FTFY
Raisins belong in their tiny little snack box for small children to enjoy and in well labeled oatmeal raisin cookies. That’s it.
Trail mix, too.
No, dried cranberries should be used in place of raisins
Por qué no los dos?
Peshwari naan?
Teacakes?
Hot oatmeal?
Braised shard?
Jeweled cabbage?
With goats cheese and bacon?
cmon live a little
Not for me, friend, but I sure hope you enjoy all those things. I had one too many poorly labeled oatmeal raisin cookies as a small child expecting chocolate chips and grew to hate the things. Honestly I’m not really a dried fruit guy except for the occasional crasin.
Or hear me out, in a bin.
Why ruin goat cheese and bacon like that?
Raisins belong too hell, where they came from.
My mom used to put raisins in tuna sandwiches
I no longer feel bad about the things I’ve done to her
Rice pudding. Tapioca pudding. Both excellent with raisins.
I do love stuffing with dried cranberries though! And traditional Christmas fruitcake with myriad dried fruits and nuts!
Oh my god, that’s disgusting!
Naked pics onlineRaisins in places they don’t belong? Where? Where do they use those?
