Yum. Yum, yum, yum. I just pulled the Bara Brith out of the oven and it looks great! Now, I certainly know how to cook with currants -- I use them in scones, bread and salads. I even have a recipe for eggplant that uses currants. But I've never been moved to find out what a currant "was" before it was all hard and black and shriveled up.

I favored Carrie's explanation -- that currants were a type of grape (maybe a concorde grape). And Carrie's right! There are two fruits called currants. The dried zante grape is the kind that is available here in the USA. The other type of currant grows on a short, shrubby, bush and is in the same family as my favorite fruit, the gooseberry. These grow wild in Northern Europe and are used to make jams and jellies, syrups, and cassis!