by Cheryl Oliver

Created on: August 08, 2008

Traditions run deep in my Irish family. St. Patrick's Day celebrations are as big as Christmas and Thanksgiving in our house. Corned beef and cabbage served with Irish soda bread is a staple - not to be reserved just for the holidays.

However, we will be the first family on the block to admit that the recipes we use for these traditional dishes are anything but traditional. The main reason being that traditional Irish food isn't all that tasty. Many Irish dishes originated during a time of despair, and ingredients were scarce. Soda bread for example was made with just 3 ingredients, and pleased only your tummy - not your tastebuds.

Irish Soda Bread recipes have evolved over the years, many of them being passed down for several generations, which has made them traditional in a sense. A lot of the family recipes you'll find now have turned the bread into more of a cake. This can be upsetting to the traditionalists out there, but the people you're serving the bread to will be appreciative!

Many paintings have depicted St. Patrick with a slice of soda bread in his hand as he ran the snakes out of Ireland. We know this can not be accurate, as soda bread was not introduced to Ireland until around 1845. Other folks will tell you that your Irish ancestors brought soda bread with them when they escaped the famine of Ireland. Of course, it would not have been a famine if they had bread, right?

Actually, is is now widely believed that soda bread wasn't invented by the Irish at all. Native Americans who did not have access to yeast used soda ash as a levening agent in their bread. It wasn't until 1835 that baking powder was produced, providing bakers with the necessary combination of acids to cause bread and cakes to rise.

It is said that by the 1930's, the people of Ireland were using sour milk in their soda bread recipes. While most households would drink the fresh milk before it could "go bad", they were able to purchase sour milk directly from the dairy. Today, we more commonly use buttermilk. Most of us though, don't keep buttermilk on hand, in which case, you can make our own. Take two cups of fresh milk and add a tablespoon of lemon juice, wait about 20 minutes, and you'll have buttermilk.

The soda bread recipe my family uses now came from m sister-in-law's deeply Irish grandmother. It's not exactly traditional, but it sure tastes good! I am not allowed to share the secret recipe, but I can tell you that it calls for a little sugar, golden raisens and caraway seeds. Sometimes we change it up a bit and use whole wheat flour too. Anyway that our family chooses to bake this tasty treat is sure to become a wonderful family tradition.

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