'Sultana' is sometimes used as a synonym for golden raisins, although there is no necessary connection between golden raisins and the Sultana variety of grape. In America Sultana grapes are known as the Thompson seedless grape, after William Thompson, the first person to grow the Sultana commercially in California. the Thompson seedless is used to make almost all of the raisins produced in America, black or golden. Thompson seedless grapes are green (these are what you see in the grocery store), and turn brown if sun dried for a long period of time. Sultana raisins are either dried more quickly (by coating them with oil or sulphur dioxide), or dried in partial shade. They tend to be slightly tarter than brown raisins, and are often juicier.

Sul*ta"na (?), n. [It.]

1.

The wife of a sultan; a sultaness.

2. pl.

A kind of seedless raisin produced near Smyrna in Asiatic Turkey.

Sultana bird Zool., the hyacinthine, or purple, gallinule. See Illust. under Gallinule.

 

© Webster 1913.

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