Unluck of the Irish



Happy Saint Paddy's Day!

While some people paid tribute to the green-themed holiday by getting soused and stumbling out of the bars at 10:30 this morning, I whipped up a batch of Irish soda bread.

If you've never had it, you should do. Irish soda bread is divine. Though the crumb is a bit dry, the bread itself has a remarkable creamy quality, with a very distinct sweet-and-soda flavor.

I borrowed a recipe from epicurious.com, and while the loaf was in the oven, I began delving into the history of soda bread (it's still under two hundred years old!), and came across a Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread.

Apparently, there's a group of folks up in arms because traditional soda bread has been modified to resemble something more like cake. They identify raisins and sugar as unacceptable additions.

Unfortunately, I'm partial to adding both of these ingredients to my so-called Irish soda bread. Who knew I'd been unwittingly contributing to its degradation.

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