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.
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.