The Day I Found out that Soda Bread with Raisins is Strictly American

I grew up eating a version of soda bread quite different than the bread my great grandmother ate in Ireland. I grew up eating soda bread that had enough butter and sugar packed in to make it qualify as a dessert. I grew up eating soda bread that was bursting with raisins. I grew up calling said soda bread, "Irish Soda Bread." Now, I call it American Soda Bread.

American Soda Bread is delicious, I won't deny that. While I've never been the biggest fan of the raisins, I have trouble turning down just about anything that's been heavily infused with butter and sugar. Each bite is sweet and moist on the inside with a crunchy crust on the outside, and a little bit of extra flavor from each raisin. This taste was a staple of my childhood. We ate it on St. Patrick's Day. We ate in on Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter in roughly the same quantities as St. Patrick's Day. We ate as an after school snack, straight out of oven. And then we learned how to make it. I took a loaf of soda bread to a "Foods from around the World" feast at my college. I was so excited to have learned the family recipe and to be sharing it with friends. I just didn't quite realize that at the feast, I was representing America, not Ireland.

One day, as my mother was in the kitchen kneading the dough that would soon become a loaf of soda bread, I asked her to tell me more about the recipe and its history. She told me about how my great grandmother, who had immigrated to the United States from Ireland, used to make soda bread, but she never had a written recipe. My mother watched her bake and tried to learn, but eventually she sought out a written recipe to follow.This meant that our family recipe wasn't really the same one the my great grandmother had over brought from Ireland. I was slightly shocked and a little bit disappointed to find this out, and it prompted me to search for the true story of Irish Soda Bread.

Step 1: Internet research. Apparently, in Ireland soda bread is drier and denser and it doesn't have raisins in it. I had heard this before and the internet confirmed it. But every Pinterest recipe that called itself, "Authentic Irish Soda Bread" called for cups full of sugar and butter and raisins. Why the raisins? I couldn't figure it out.

Step 2: I interviewed a college history professor, who not only taught classes on Irish history, but also happened to be from Ireland. He talked about eating soda bread right off the griddle as a child in Ireland, and how no version he found in America was ever the same. It was all much sweeter, moister, and it always had raisins. Why the raisins? That was still the number one question on my mind. He didn't know either.

Step 3: More internet research, which led me to The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread. This website passionately defends real, authentic, some might even say historic soda bread. On the website, they share a recipe, which is very bare bones. No sugar, no butter, no raisins. So why do Americans add raisins? I think I finally found my answer from this interview with Irish Chef, Rory O'Connell. He explained that in some regions of Ireland, they might add dried fruit to soda bread on special occasions only. Throughout much of Irish history, dried fruit would have been considered a luxury item. Irish cooks would only be able to add raisins when they had raisins to spare, which would have been a rare occurrence. They usually made a simple bread with flour from the wheat they grew and sour milk from their cows. Irish soda bread comes from humble beginnings.

Perhaps Irish immigrants like my great grandmother were pleasantly surprised that dried fruit, sugar, and butter was more easily attainable in the United States. Perhaps they decided to add it to their recipes more frequently until it became commonplace amongst the American generations. It makes me realize that being able to eat what I call American Soda Bread shows certain privileges I have in my life that my great grandmother didn't have in Ireland. I can buy raisins from the store and enjoy sweets buttery bread without worry. Her family in Ireland would have only been able to enjoy these luxuries when the harvest was good and they had ingredients they could spare. Who knew that learning the story behind a recipe would help me appreciate that so much more?

In a way, the evolution of our soda bread recipe tells the story of my Irish American family. Our lives now are very different than our relatives' lives were a few generations ago, yet our lives are still connected. I love American soda bread. It brings me a very specific feeling of nostalgia, and the story behind it is fascinating indeed. But I have made a pact to start making authentic soda bread as well. The recipe I learned from The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread is more similar to the one my Irish family would have enjoyed, and it is a way for me to reach back and connect with them. Also, in my opinion, it's just as delicious as the American version! So, that's the recipe I want to share, in hopes that it can do for other Irish Americans what it did for me.

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

1 3/4 cup of butter milk (if you want to get really authentic here, you can use milk that has gone sour)

Preheat your oven to 425º

Start by mixing all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add the buttermilk and mix with your hands until combined– mix only until combined, soda bread does not need to be kneaded.

For the next step, it's best to use a deep pan instead of a cookie sheet. Place the dough inside the lightly greased pan and form into a flat circular loaf. Cut a cross into the top of the dough.

As an optional step, you can place a cookie sheet on top of the pan, so that the loaf cooks inside a contained space.

Cook for 45 minutes.

(Big thanks once again to The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread for teaching me this recipe.)

I recommend eating a slice straight out of the oven with a little bit of butter spread on top. It also pairs deliciously with a Guinness!

Sláinte mhathe!