what do you call them ?

I've never seen anything referred to "teacakes" in this region of the US. The split and toasted one contains what we call "golden raisins". Currents are an entirely different fruit, growing on bushes and tasting very tart. I've never seen them dried but they are often made into jelly (the spread for bread, not Jello, the gelatin dessert (pudding)). The "chocolate teacake" looks like a cookie (sweet biscuit) topped with marshmallow fluff and coated with chocolate icing. The "tea 'n cake" is the only one on which British and American English and cuisine agree.
 
i think the name tea cakes is a West Yorkshire term for these bread cakes , in Lancashire they call them barm cakes or muffins ,South England they call them bread buns,,, so if you visit Summer Wine area and feel peckish just find a sandwich shop and ask for whichever filling you fancy , maybe beef n onion . you will get a tea cake cut in half buttered and a couple of slices of meat in it ,
 
OK, does anyone know why currents, except for a certain type, are banned in the US? Yes, there are items that are sold as currents but they are really a type of raisin.
 
Adanor said:
OK, does anyone know why currents, except for a certain type, are banned in the US? Yes, there are items that are sold as currents but they are really a type of raisin.
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Black currents were banned from 1911 under pressure from the lumber industry because the bushes were believed to carry white pine blister rust, a fungus that was fatal to those trees. Red currents and gooseberries were also banned in some states, because they are in the same genus and so were falsely believed to carry the disease. Both were legal in my state, so I grew up grazing on red currents from the bush in our back yard and on gooseberries from a bush by a neighbor's front stoop. My state lifted the ban on black currents in 2006, so they're back on the market here, but probably can't be transported across state lines into states that still ban them.
 
dick said:
Currants, raisins and sultanas are all made from the grape family ! :eyesroll::22:
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Currents, both red and black, and gooseberries are in the Grossulariaceae family. Grapes are in the Vitaceae family. Grossulariaceae are shrubs, Vitaceae are vines.
 
Marianna said:
Currents, both red and black, and gooseberries are in the Grossulariaceae family. Grapes are in the Vitaceae family. Grossulariaceae are shrubs, Vitaceae are vines.
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what you call black currants and red currants, we in the UK call blackcurrants and redcurrants. They are different from just currants which as Dick says are dried grapes like raisins or sultanas.
 
Roger said:
what you call black currants and red currants, we in the UK call blackcurrants and redcurrants. They are different from just currants which as Dick says are dried grapes like raisins or sultanas.
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What do you call the berries that blackcurrent Ribena is made from? It sounds as though it is made from ribes, the berries of the Grossulariaceae family, not from grapes, the berries of the Vitaceae family. If it's the latter, then why has the US Agriculture Department confiscated it from travelers entering the US? If I buy a bottle of blackcurrent juice in the UK, am I getting a bottle of ordinary purple grape juice? That would be a shock and a disappointment!
 
Ribena is made from blackcurrant juice, blackcurrants are berries not grapes. Currants in currant buns and eccles cakes are dried grapes. Its like apples and pineapples, pineapples are neither pines or apples.
 
Roger said:
Ribena is made from blackcurrant juice, blackcurrants are berries not grapes. Currants in currant buns and eccles cakes are dried grapes. Its like apples and pineapples, pineapples are neither pines or apples.
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Thank you! So blackcurrents = black currents; redcurrents = red currents; dried grapes = raisins, white or purple. And what each is called depends on the country and the culinary context.
 
By the way, speaking of differences in the English language usage, one of my friends from the UK visited the States and ran into great difficulty when he walked into a bar and ordered "a pint". That would rate either a blank look or the statement, "This isn't a package store", in other words it isn't a Jug & Bottle. In this region, you order "a glass" of a specific brand of beer, usually whatever is on tap. He was visiting below the Mason-Dixon Line, so the standard phrase may be different there, but it certainly isn't "a pint".
 
Here in New Zealand

Teacake - Bun
Chocolate Teacake - Mallow Puff (a brand name for a type of biscuit or cookie)
Tea n Cake - Chocolate Cake
Current Teacake - Bun with raisins
 
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