What is Soda Bread you ask?  Just as bagpipes weren’t invented by the Scots,  the  chemical reaction that makes Soda Bread what it is, wasn’t invented by the Irish.

The earliest reference to using soda ash in baking bread seems to be credited to Native American tribes using it to leaven their bread.  Pearl Ash was used prior to 1800 to make cakes by combining it with an acidic ingredient in the dough.  Hard wheat flour, the primary flour in use in the US today,  requires yeast for a proper rise.  So called  “soft” wheat flour does poorly with yeast, but is great for “quick breads” of which Soda Bread is one.  However, as the Scots have made the bagpipe their instrument, the Irish made Soda Bread theirs.  Not by choice, but by a state of poverty that made it the easiest bread to put on the table.  At the turn of the 20th century most of Britain preferred hard wheat flour breads and moved away from the quick breads.  Ireland however, stuck with the soft wheat Soda breads due to it’s relative cost.  By 1908, 2/3 of the flour used in Ireland was of the “soft” variety and imported from the U.S.  This explains why Soda Bread became an Irish namesake.

To pay homage to this, the Northeast South Dakota Celtic Faire proudly announces the inclusion of a Soda Bread contest to our festivities.  Please check out the link for the official rules and prize information.