Irish Soda Bread: Homemade from a packaged mix from Ireland--March 14, 2024

 Irish Soda Bread: Homemade from a packaged mix (from Ireland)--March 14, 2024

Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up in several days, and that usually means that green pastries and Irish stouts and liquors starts appearing in American supermarkets. Occasionally, soda bread is also available. A quick bread relying on baking soda as the rising agent, the bread in the US is closely associated with Irish culture, so that it is usually advertised as “Irish soda bread.” 

Although a long history is usually assumed, soda bread only goes back to the early 1800s, since baking soda was not commercially available until the 1840s. The version usually made in the US is fancy one with sugar, maybe an egg, and raisins (to replace currants) that would have been served only for special occasions in Ireland. The soda bread that I saw at dance events and gatherings in the US was always in a rectangular loaf form rather than the round “cake” presented as traditional “farmhouse” soda in the Republic of Ireland. 

The kind I usually was offered in homes and restaurants in Ireland was actually more commonly “brown bread,” soda bread made with wholewheat flour and oftentimes also baked in a loaf pan. Slices of this—which were never referred to as soda bread, but just “brown bread,” oftentimes accompanied breakfast or soup. Some restaurants also used a slice as a base for an open-top sandwich—shrimp salad or cheese and tomato were the ones I usually saw. 

All of these versions are very different from the “farls” that are common in Northern Ireland—quarters of a round that are cooked on a griddle and turned over and flattened on both sides. These are eaten at any time of day in Ulster and sold in supermarkets and bakeries by the farl. They can be made with white flour (plain soda), wholewheat flour (wholemeal), with treacle (a form of molasses), and with currants or dried fruits. I also saw varieties in a Belfast market in 2022 made with spelt and other flours and having sunflower seeds and nuts mixed in the dough. Farls are central to an “Ulster fry,” a meal of fried eggs, white and black puddings (liver and blood sausage), streaky bacon, broiled tomato, and fried potato farls, that is standard for breakfast but actually served any time of day. I remember having a fry at 2 in the morning after attending a dance or music event! 

Back to St. Patrick’s Day and soda bread in the US… This year the supermarkets seem subdued about the holiday, but in years past, they displayed anything that could be construed as Irish (stout, whiskey, Irish cream liqueurs, corned beef for Jigg’s dinner--a whole other blog!, cheese and butter from Ireland, and, occasionally, soda bread) along with other Spring holidays and imagery. Sometimes, Mardi Gras is close to St. Patrick’s Day, and the stores have a field day then, juxtaposing “Irish” products next to king cake and Polish paczki, doughnuts laden with sugar and fat. 

This year, I haven’t seen soda bread being sold in supermarkets in northwest Ohio or in western North Carolina. That’s ok since it’s usually made with “inauthentic recipes” with baking powder and sugar added. I usually make some from scratch anyway. This year, though, I’m making use of a packaged mix brought over for Christmas by my Irish son-in-law. The mix was came from Odlums, a company started in 1845 in the center of Ireland. I’ve seen and purchased their mixes throughout Ireland and brought them to the US as souvenirs to give to friends. (See: Folkloristic Perspectives on Food as Tourism Souvenir: Stereotypes, Meanings, and Messages in Irish Soda Bread. (Reflection). Research in Hospitality Management 12/3 (2022): 209-214. DOI: 10.1080/22243534.2023.2202491).  They’re always a big hit! 

The mix is very convenient. All it needed was milk instead of the usual called-for buttermilk. Milk can be curdled with vinegar, and some Irish cooks  “sweet” milk can be used, but I’ve never had much success with those. It took 5 minutes at the most to add milk to the mix, stir it together and shape into rounds. I flattened one to be more like the Ulster farls that reminded my father of the buttermilk biscuits he grew up on in Appalachia and left the other one rounded. I made both smaller than usual to make sure they baked all the way through. Slathered with the Irish butter that’s commonly sold in the US now, they were delicious. I served them to friends who were very appreciative.

 

(I’ll include a recipe in another blog recounting my visit to the famous Ballymaloe House cookery school--https://www.ballymaloe.com--in County Cork in December of 2022.)

 

For more about soda bread and its different forms, uses, and meanings in the three cultures, see my conference paper: Travels of Soda bread from Quotidian Food to Heritage Food. In Proceedings of the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium—2022 Food and Movement, pp. 167-73. Dublin: Technological University Dublin, 2022 (https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1255&context=dgs).