I've got an old (~1920's) fruit salad recipe that calls for Malaga grapes. My grocery store has "white" and "red" (and occasionally "black") -- which would be the appropriate substitute? Or is this not referring to a color, but rather a region that grows a lot of particularly nice grapes? (I'm finding lots of Google hits for Malaga wines...)
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1The famous wines from the Malaga area tend to be dessert type wines made from white grapes so my guess would be sweet white grapes. – user23614 Oct 13 '15 at 15:16
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I also googled it and it seems that sweet white or green grapes are, indeed, probably the closest answer. Since it is a fruit salad, you may want to choose whichever of the grapes is sweetest rather than choosing by color.
Winemonger's page on malaga says that it is a white wine grape and can be called by the following names:
- Hunter Riesling (Australia)
- Blanc Doux / Chevrier / Semillon (France)
- Boal / Wyndruif (South Africa)
- Green Grape (United Kingdom)
- Semillon (United States)
The wikipedia link for Sémillon describes that as a sweet, golden grape.
This interesting Chicago Tribune article from 1890 about what people in NY fruit markets were calling Malaga grapes also indicates that it is a "white or pinkish white" grape, and not the true Malaga grapes, which that article claims were too delicate to ship.
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Thank you -- I think I agree that flavor over color is the best way forward! :) – Erica Oct 14 '15 at 17:40