Talk:Soda bread

Griddle Cake
I have added griddle cake to the soda bread article, as it's basically the same idea, but it does taste a little different. This too was traditionally popular in throughout Ireland. My sourcing is from Co Clare. Taramoon 18:28, 24 May 2006 (UTC)


 * A farl is not a Griddle Cake? A farl is smaller than a Griddle Cake.  A farl is more bun size, whereas a griddle cake covers the whole case of the skillet. 86.42.144.242 17:58, 18 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually a soda bread farl is a gridle cake. Farl means quarter, a farl is simply a quarter of the entire cake. You prep the soda bread, flatten it, mark it into four sections and cook. Once cooked you split the four sections out. Ben W Bell   talk  08:13, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

meaning of the cross
The meaning of the cross in the top of the loaf is disputed in the 2nd half of the article (whether to ward evil or allow easier divisions) however the 1st half of the article says (without any doubt) that it is to allow the loaf to expand? I think the article should take one or the other, not confilct itself? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.20.62.98 (talk) 21:28, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

May I add that the cross may have a religious meaning.


 * Only if you can back it up. It may have religious overtones, but it's there to allow the bread to expand naturally instead of breaking up. Canterbury Tail   talk  11:36, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I always heard (from Irish family members and a number of cookbooks) that the cross was simply an old tradition which, according to folklore, was meant to "let the fairies out [of the bread]". Never heard of any practical use for it, but I could easily be wrong. -- 69.47.9.44 (talk) 19:33, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

The cross has a practical use but also has it's roots in Irish superstition. Any Irish baker will tell you that. The practical use (allowing the bread to rise better) as well as the function to ward of evil/farys etc. must both be included. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Daithiocondun (talk • contribs) 10:48, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Ireland
… The Soda Farl is one of the distinguishing elements of the Ulster Fry, which has become increasingly popular in Northern Ireland due to an increase of international tourists to places such as Belfast and the Giant's Causeway. That is a non sequitur, and it is also ambiguous (is it the popularity of the farl or fry that is being claimed (any evidence?) to be due to tourists?)!---CC (talk) 16:45, 5 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Couldn't find any references for the tourist statement, through a quick check. I've rearranged the wording for now. &#9733; K E Y S &#9733; (talk) 19:31, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

Mixing the ingredients
The article says that the ingredients ought to be handled as little as possible before baking. This is both right and wrong. For light white soda bread professional bakers advise mixing the dry ingredients very well, for example by repeated (five times is what I was taught, and always do) sieving of the flour, salt and baking soda/cream of tartar together. This gets the particle size pretty uniform, and probably gets quite a lot of air into the flour. Once the buttermilk is added, you mix quickly, and very lightly, form up, and slam in a hot oven. I usually do this in less than 60 seconds.

The cross has a very practical effect - you get lots of extra crust, and a low crust:volume ratio, and a loaf which cooks quickly.

Finally I've never seen a soda bread made with stout. Buttermilk is usual, yoghurt I've heard of, but stout? Has anyone else?

If I hear no dissent I'll add the point about the mixing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Astaines (talk • contribs) 21:21, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

Removed
I have removed the following sentence (including the reference) ''In Australian slang, an (Old Thing) was a meal of salted beef or mutton and ash cooked damper. '' as it is unclear what was this meal...(Old Thing)? What Old Thing? Why the parentheses? If someone knows what this is supposed to mean, feel free to correct me & put it back. Cheers, LindsayHello 07:53, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

Necessary to include cesnica?
Cesnica, the seasonal soda bread, has its own entry. Does it have to take up a section in the soda bread page? Can it not go under the "related pages"? It is not the same as Irish soda bread, which is eaten daily. Cesnica (it seems) is for Christmas only. Hyacinth45 (talk) 15:20, 23 October 2015 (UTC) Hyacinth45 (talk) 15:20, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Orphaned references in Soda bread
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Soda bread's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "bbc": From United Kingdom:  From Australia:  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 18:01, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Created By: Native Americans
Soda bread is listed as 'created by: Native Americans" and cites source 1,

'The earliest reference to using soda ash in baking bread seems to be credited to American Indians using it to leaven their bread.'

Though the origin section of the wiki references European settlers and not Native Americans. I'd be interested to see the origin properly attributed. Nadiacult (talk) 06:43, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
 * There are quite a lot of references pointing to it coming back from the US, and not being from Ireland. https://www.daily-journal.com/life/origins-of-irish-soda-bread-come-from-america/article_0e1a8bea-c7fe-11e4-8481-7fee84d8f29c.html, http://kitchenproject.com/history/IrishSodaBreads/, http://www.sodabread.info/history, https://www.farmersalmanac.com/irish-soda-bread-15195. Canterbury Tail talk 12:04, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Are there any high-quality sources that state this? The above are self-published sources by non-historians and recipe preambles in minor publications, which would not count as reliable sources. Google Books and Google Scholar turn up nothing, and Google just shows more derived recipe preambles. --157.157.113.130 (talk) 18:22, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

“Irish” Soda Bread
Soda bread has been found to have originated with Native Americans before being adopted by settlers or ever reaching Ireland, but there is no mention of them on this page.

The ash leavening technique used by “american settlers” was an indigenous method. 47.186.204.175 (talk) 17:23, 12 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Have you any sources (WP:RS) for this? - Roxy the dog 19:38, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

Karask
one red link is Karask (Estonian name for soda bread). But I don't want to do a redirect here without mentioning "karask" in this article Estopedist1 (talk) 15:31, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Ireland's yellowmeal griddle bread
There is also a recent article about yellowmeal – or yellermeal, also known as maize or cornmeal : https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230908-irelands-yellowmeal-griddle-bread - is it related to Ireland's soda bread ? Wisdood (talk) 08:16, 26 September 2023 (UTC)