What makes a good Irish soda bread?

[Stanley Stephan]

I just had the worst Irish Soda bread today. It was solid to the point of bending the knife, had white raisins instead of currants and had CARAWAY SEEDS. Not to metion this little, and I do mean little, organic number cost me six bucks. I need to look up some Irish curses for this bakery.

However, what does make a good Irish Soda bread. I like a few currants in it and for it not to be too dry and puckery. Another bakery had those caraway seeds with currants. What is it with the caraway seeds? This other bakery had Irish Soda bread with scallions. Is this some sort of California abberation? If so, it needs to stop.

[Caitlin McGrath]

I'm no expert on Irish soda bread, but lots of traditional (and Irish) recipes include caraway seeds.

[Missy P.]

I was reading the Irish soda bread recipes in The Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated) and they say the traditional Irish Soda bread is a brown bread with neither raisins, currants nor caraway seeds, but that those adaptations are Irish-American (with an emphasis on the American). It seems that what is typically sold as Irish Soda bread in the US is not so Irish. Does anyone else know more about this?

[FatBob]

My dear Grandmother, born in county TyrConnel (Donegal for those of you who are Gaelicly challenged) always used Currants and some kinda funky dark flour. Her brother had a source of the flour in NYC. He also had a source for decent Poitin but thats another story.....

[Emma]

I've also heard that raisins and caraway seeds are an American addition; our Irish soda bread is sweeter, too. Nick Malgeri describes this a bit in his How to Bake book (in fact, you can take a look at his original soda bread recipe and the American variation at Amazon using the "Look Inside" feature).

[Mrs. Smith]

Well my grandfather was from County Clare, and he made a soda bread with a combination of graham flour, white flour, and whole wheat flour. I never thought it was particularly special as a child, if you can believe it. I wish I had some now so that I could properly judge it.

For an occasionaly fling he'd throw in currants, but that was not for every day.

I wasn't into baking when he was making these (he passed when I was a teenager) so I don't know his method. He tried to teach my Norwegian grandmother to do it (she was a wonderful baker of Scandinavian treats) but she couldn't get the hang of it. I don't think it's an easy process to do. I know that the reaction of the buttermilk and soda is immediate, so you have to treat it like one big bisquit -- namely mix it in quickly, just barely knead it, and then pop it in the oven. The outside should be craggy and rough, the inside almost moist (though thoroughly cooked).

Grandpa never made more than one at a time, and it was gone within a day. It doesn't keep.

I'm just working off what Grandpa did 20 years ago when I was a kid. Any Irish hounds out there who have more accurate explanations of what true Irish soda bread, and the American white soda bread, should taste like, and how they should be made?

[Tracy L.]

I've always used James Beard's recipe for Soda Bread. As I recall it has caraway. The two things that are important to me in enjoying irish soda bread are the addition of buttermilk and eating the bread a few hours after it is made. If I remember it can go stale quickly.

[Tom Meg]

Irish soda bread can be kind of tricky to make, even with a good recipe. Since the baking soda starts reacting the moment it comes into contact with the buttermilk, it takes some practice to QUICKLY gauge the correct amount of buttermilk to add (enough to hold the dough together, but not so much that the dough turns out soggy), and to knead it quickly and get it into the oven (or skillet) as soon as possible. Using a softer, lower protien flour also promotes a more tender, less chewy texture.

Link: http://meglioranza.com

[ruth arcone]

I just got back from Ireland, and most of the soda bread I had there was brown bread without currants or caraway. They did have soda bread with fruit (currants or raisins) for sale, but it was listed as if it were something special, not the normal everyday type. I did not see any with caraway.

I used to have the soda bread concession at a large Irish music festival held every year in New York. It was a one day event and I made 200 - 250 loaves of bread for the occasion. It seems that everyone had their own speciific requests, so I made 6 types: plain white, plain brown, white/brown with currants, white/brown with currants and caraway. The first year I also made white/brown with just caraway the first year, but there were few takers. People would stand around my table having arguments about what constituted "proper" soda bread, I guess it comes down to personal taste or what you grew up with.

BTW, the recipe I used had no sugar in the white loaf, and only 3 Tbl in the brown if I remember correctly.