![]() ![]() The wheat that grew in Ireland was a “soft wheat”. It only required flour, baking soda, and soured milk or buttermilk. This basic quick bread was simply the least expensive bread they could make. Photo credit: National Library of Ireland Why Did The Irish Make Soda Bread?īicarbonate of soda only became readily available in Ireland in the 1840’s and one of the earliest recipes that has been found for soda bread in Ireland is from 1836.īut due to the potato famine and the poverty in Ireland, soda bread became a staple in the Irish diet from the mid 1800’s and on. In America, early soda bread recipes first appeared by Amelia Simmons in 1796 in her book American Cookery and by Mary Randolph in 1824 in The Virginia Housewife. There are earlier references to Indigenous Americans using soda ash and pearl ash or “potash” to leaven their bread. While soda bread became an Irish dinner table staple, the Irish were not the first to discover the chemical reaction that creates soda bread. So naturally I devoured, (ouch that is a painful pun – so sorry,) the history of soda bread in Ireland. Generally, whenever you’re baking and a recipe calls for buttermilk, you can substitute milk plus a couple tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar. You simply “sour” regular milk with 2 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar. You can make Irish soda bread without buttermilk. If you don’t have any buttermilk in your fridge right now, no worries! How To Make Soda Bread Without Buttermilk While these breads are not exactly following the traditional Irish Soda Bread recipe eaten since the mid-nineteenth century, no one is going to complain when they are enjoying your scrumptious creations. I do hope you feel free of course to try different versions of breads made with an Irish Soda Bread base, such as sweet versions with sugar, currants or dried fruit, or savory versions with caraway seeds, fennel or dill. “Anything else added makes it a ‘Tea Cake!'” So, I am going with the salted version.)Īccording to The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, an Irish Soda bread has only these four ingredients. ![]() But I definitely prefer salt in my baking to bring out the flavors. (Some argue traditional Irish Soda bread really only has three ingredients and doesn’t use salt. Yes, I learned that a traditional Irish Soda Bread recipe contains FOUR ingredients, flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. Because if you are going to call your bread Irish Soda Bread, you might run into some trouble if you start adding in sugar, eggs, butter, currents, etc. If you do a little research on Traditional Irish Soda Bread, you’ll discover this is a controversial quick bread and understand why some websites call their versions “Soda Bread” and don’t include the word “Irish”.
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