Читать книгу The Raisin Industry - Gustavus A. Eisen - Страница 5

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The word “raisin” as spelled and pronounced to-day, is not of very ancient origin, but rather a corruption and evolution of older words, both spelled and pronounced differently. Thus Falstaff replies to Prince Hal: “If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion” (Henry IV, Act II, scene 4). Also, Cooper, in his dictionary of 1685, indicates that “raisin” and “reason” are of identical sounds. The derivation of the word has, again, been very variously suggested either from “red” or “rose” color, connecting it with the German and Danish word “rosine;” and it has even been suggested that the word was derived from the fact that the raisins were cured in the “rays” of the sun. The true derivation, however, is from the Latin word “racemus,” meaning a bunch or cluster. Richardson, who first points out this derivation, quotes: “Whether a reisyn (E. V. graap, racemus) of Effraym is not better than the vindages of Abiezer” (Wicliffe Judges VIIJ, 2). “And there shall be left in it as a rasyn” (E. V., braunches of a cluster). Marginal note, “A rasyn is a lytil bow with a lytil fruit” (Idem. Is., XVIJ., 6). But we have much older testimony of this derivation being the correct one. An old document states that, in 1265 A. D., the Countess of Leicester paid in London twelve shillings for fourteen pounds, or, as the statement reads in Latin, “Pro uno fraello racemorum;” which, translated, would be, “for one frail of bunches.” The evolution of the Latin word racemus was thus seen to have been accomplished rapidly enough; but, on account of the illiteracy of the olden times, it was spelled and pronounced promiscuously. Thus we meet with such spellings as “reysyns,” in 1266; “reysons,” in 1447 (“Russell’s Book of Nurture”). In 1554 the Stationers’ Company in London paid twopence for one pound of “greate reasons;” while Andrew Borde, in his “Dietary” of 1542, says that “great raysens be nutrytyve, specyally yf the stones be pulled out.” In 1578 Dodoens speaks of dried raysens. In 1685 the word “raisin” is used and spelled as in our days, and from that time on the different spellings were used, if not promiscuously, still without any great uniformity. The term of “greate raysens” was introduced to distinguish them from the smaller raisins, or currants. In our own days, the latter is seldom classed or alluded to as a “raisin” proper, although it, strictly speaking, should be considered as such. The tendency at present in California is to make the distinction between “raisins” and “dried grapes,” meaning by the former certain varieties of grapes which have been skillfully dried and cured, and which are superior in taste, flavor, thinness of skin and saccharine matter. “Dried grapes,” again, are simply any kind of grape, especially wine-grapes, which have only been dried, and which have not undergone that skillful treatment which the grape-grower is so proud of, and justly enough designates as “curing.” They are an outgrowth from the late efforts of the French wine merchants to make genuine French wine out of anything that is sweet, and as they are immensely preferable to beets, potatoes and glucose, they will always be in demand.

With the above definition of the “raisin” accepted, we can proceed to consider their different varieties, their names and derivations. The old designations of the different varieties were derived from the places where they were produced, without special reference to the grapes from which the raisins were made. Thus we had Malagas, Currants, Valencias, Denias, Turkish and Italian raisins. But since it has been found that the same kinds of raisins have been produced in very different localities, and that some localities can produce all the different kinds, a new division has been found necessary. Thus, disregarding the many various brands with which this and other markets are flooded, the following different varieties of raisins will be found the principal ones: Currants, Muscatels, Dipped and Sultana.