My grandmother always drank red rose tea – and back in the day it came with little figurines she used to collect. And she’d drink her tea with milk and sweet ‘n lo, or sometimes equal, but she preferred sweet ‘n lo – I remember the little pink packets.
And she gave me one recipe from her mother – passed down from Ireland from her mother – and she gave it to me at her kitchen island, probably over a cup of tea – you always had a cup of tea at her house. The first question my grandparents asked when company came over was shall I put the kettle on? Would you like some tea?
So she gave me the family recipe for soda bread – updated from pinches, dashes, and handfuls to cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons. She told me buttermilk was expensive and to just curdle the milk at room temperature for 10 minutes with a tablespoon of lemon juice instead. She told me the caraway and raisins were traditional – but both could be left out to suit one’s taste. I remember that conversation with her.
It was baked in a cast iron skillet in the oven when her mother made it – but Mary said it could be made in a standard glass bread pan.
She was a practical woman.
Soda bread is best with a cup of tea and a big slather of butter and jam. I remember Mary liking orange marmalade.
I wish I had gotten to know my grandmother better.
I knew too much as a child, but at the same time, not enough.
Maybe they didn’t know.
Mommom Mary’s Soda Bread
Preheat oven to 350F
4c. Flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp caraway seed
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c sugar
1c raisins
1/2 stick butter – melted (4oz)
2c. Buttermilk
2 eggs
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend in 1/2 stick melted butter by hand. And caraway seeds and sugar. Beat eggs and buttermilk separately and then add to flour mixture, along with raisins (all done by hand).
Grease a loaf pan (preferably glass) with butter. Put dough in pan and bake 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done.
Laughs and Lobotomies 