"Our breads are very healthy and good for you! There is
no salt or yeast; they are low in sugar, contain only natural
ingredients and have no artificial preservatives or trans fats."
Granny Ann
About Irish Soda Bread
"Soda bread...The bread
has been a particular specialty of Ireland
since the late 19th century. In Ireland the
use of bicarbonate of soda or bread soda in
bread-making was commonplace by the 1840s
and certainly by the second half of the 19th
century soda bread had become an established
feature of the Irish diet. Its popularity
can in part be attributed to the fact that
rural Ireland did not have a strong
tradition of yeast bread manufacture. Until
the late 19th century bread-making was
considered an entirely domestic procedure
and executed with a limited range of
utensils; the pot oven or bastible and the
flat iron griddle. These utensils were
ideally suited to soda bread preparation and
the soda itself provided a convenient,
storable, and predictable leaven regardless
of the strength or weakness of the
flour...Traditionally a cross was cut into
the dough, which helped in the even baking
of the bread and assisted in the quartering
of the loaf afterward...
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan
Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford]
1999(p. 732)
The
Story Behind Granny Roddy's Irish Bread
The Roddy Family, circa 1933
One of my fondest memories as a young Irish lass
growing up in the country town of Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon, Ireland, was the
sumptuous smell of Irish Soda bread baking on the hearth. My eight
siblings and I couldn’t wait for the moment the bread was ready. Mother (Granny Roddy) served it to us warm with fresh cream butter and
homemade jam.
At 14, the daily honor of making this delectable treat was
passed on to me. Seventy years and literally thousands of loaves later
-- my eight children and seventeen grandchildren were raised on it too!
-- I
am still baking my family’s secret Irish Soda Bread recipe.
