What is the history of Irish Soda Bread?

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread is a classic quick bread from Ireland, which takes its name from the fact that it uses baking soda for leavening. The whole reason bread soda was used in the first place was to replace using yeast as the rising agent.

It is usually made with buttermilk, baked on the griddle or in the oven. It didn't keep well and was made every 2-3 days and eaten as a part of the mean, not a desert.

Before baking, a cross is cut on the top with a knife, supposedly to ward off the devil. It shocks some people to learn that Irish Soda Bread hasn't been around for thousands of years. It wasn't until around the 1840's that bicarbonate of soda (Bread soda) as a leavening agent was introduced to Ireland. The basic soda bread is made with flour, baking soda, salt, and soured milk (or buttermilk).

Irish soda bread. Real soda bread, the traditional type our Irish ancestors have baked and eaten for well over 100 years. It is tender and dense with a slight sour tang and a hard crust. A nutritious staple that is real "Staff of Life" stuff.

As befitting a traditional product of a poor country, it was made with only the most basic of ingredients: flour to form a dough, bread soda to leaven the dough, soured milk to moisten and activate the soda, and salt for seasoning. It is a traditional food, worth preserving and passing on to our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

First answer by ID1170920863. Last edit by Heliotrope. Contributor trust: 116 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 207 [recommend question]