RAISINS, grapes prepared by suffering them to remain on the vine until they are perfectly ripe, and then drying them in the sun, or by the heat of an oven. The difference between raisins dried in the sun and those dried in ovens is very obvious. The former are sweet and pleasant, but the latter have a latent acidity mixed with the sweetness, which renders them much less agreeable.
The common way of drying grapes for raisins, is to tie two or three bunches of them together whilst yet on the vine, and dip them into a hot lixivium of wood-ashes, mixed with a little of the oil of olives. This disposes them to shrink and wrinkle; after which they are left on the vine three or four days, separated on sticks in an horizontal situation, and then dried in the sun at leisure after being cut from the tree. The finest and best raisins are those called in some places Damascus and Jube raisins; which are distinguished from the others by their size and figure. They are flat and wrinkled on the surface, soft and juicy within, and nearly an inch long; and, when fresh and growing on the bunch, are of the size and shape of a large olive.