Irish Soda Bread

Ireland — soda bread emerged in Ireland in the 1840s when bicarbonate of soda became available; it was perfectly suited to the soft Irish wheat (lower gluten content than hard wheats) that doesn't develop well in yeasted bread

Ireland's most distinctive bread — leavened not with yeast but with the reaction between bicarbonate of soda and buttermilk's lactic acid — produces a dense, slightly tangy quick bread with a cross scored on top (both to help it rise evenly and, in tradition, to ward off evil and let the fairies out). Traditional Irish soda bread uses only wholemeal flour, buttermilk, bicarbonate, and salt; the resulting bread is coarse, nutty, and deeply flavoured with a thick crust. White soda bread (using plain white flour) is more widely made today and is sweeter and lighter. The bread must be baked immediately after mixing — the chemical reaction between soda and acid is immediate; any delay means the leavening is spent before the bread reaches the oven.

Breakfast with salted Irish butter; alongside Irish stew; the bread's slight sourness from the buttermilk pairs with smoked salmon; at an Irish hotel breakfast table with marmalade and a full Irish; pairs with Bewley's tea