Maybe better than beer

It’s no secret that I enjoy beer. But as an Irishman by heritage I am a little ashamed to confess I like something even more than beer around St. Patrick’s Day: Irish Soda Bread.

Technically I could procure soda bread any time at Uncle Billy’s Bakery, but I have to think about it and request it the day before. I have done that, but it requires thinking and remembering (I would feel bad if I ordered it and forgot to pick it up, though I’m sure somebody would buy it).

That’s the joy of March and St. Patty’s Day season. I know, since when did it become a whole season like Halloween and Christmas? Well, since the bakery started baking Irish Soda Bread at the start of the month. Anyway, I remembered that a week into the month and headed in for my fix. Since then I’ve been in about eight times, usually buying two loaves (are they loaves? Mini-loaves?) at a time — just in case. …

Now, it’s a little disappointing to learn that what Uncle Billy’s calls Irish Soda Bread isn’t traditional. It’s a variant. It may be a variant brought over by immigrants at least. But traditional Irish Soda Bread is a savory quick bread, not sweetened with dried fruit and sugar and filled with caraway seeds. Still, that’s the way I like it — dessert- or breakfast-like. And that’s how I enjoy it: breakfast, afternoon snack, lunch, dinner. I figure the fruit and seeds make it quasi-healthy.

So what’s the deal with Irish Soda Bread? I scoured the Internet in search of the story and found several. The best, which starts off with the information above — that United States “Irish soda bread” isn’t really Irish — was on Epicurious, which turned to chef/cooking teacher Rory O’Connell. With a name like that, I don’t really care what his credentials are, but O’Connell “also founded the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School with his sister, Darina Allen, in 1983 — both continue to teach there and are regarded as two of the foremost experts on Irish cuisine and food history.

O’Connell tells us bread soda (baking soda) was introduced in the early 1800s, enabling those without an oven to make bread — cooked in a cast-iron pot with a lid, called a bastible (sounds like a Dutch oven). He goes on to explain that the addition of dried fruits — raises, currants, what-have-you — would have been a luxury.

For more on the bread, you can visit Epicurious. But I want to share this one question and answer, mostly because the loaves I’ve bought the past two days didn’t have the cross cut into the top, which made them slightly less fun to eat.

Epicurious: What is the purpose of cutting the shape of a cross on top of the bread?
Rory O'Connell: It's scientific, primarily, because it allows the heat to penetrate into the thickest part of the bread, so it assists cooking. And obviously the cross is a cruciform shape, so in a Catholic country that had a resonance—it had the symbolic note of crossing the breads and giving thanks. There was also the expression "to let the devil out of the bread," so it was slightly superstitious. And if you make that cruciform shape on the bread, when it comes out of the oven it breaks beautifully. So you've got the blessing of the bread by putting the cross on it and then you've got the symbolic breaking of the bread.

Today's Stats (Tuesday, March 18, 2014)

Temp: 34 degrees F

Distance: 4.61 miles

Weekly Total: 4.61 miles

Treasure: Soda Bread! Bought Monday, St. Patrick’s Day.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Soak UpThe Sun – Sheryl Crow

Saturday Night – Bay City Rollers

Sullivan Street – Counting Crows

Rhinestone Cowboy – Glen Campbell

Kelsey – Metro Station

Pour SomeSugar On Me – Def Leppard

What The Hell (Bimbo Jones Remix) – Avril Lavigne

Captain Jack – Billy Joel

I’ll Wait – Van Halen

Hold MyHand – Hootie & The Blowfish

Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) – Looking Glass

What The Hell (Acoustic Version) – Avril Lavigne