HOBOKEN IRISH FESTIVAL: Soda Bread Showdown

The manna of the Irish poorer class, soda bread was the product of necessity. It was more or less made with what the Irish could scrape together—flour, baking soda (instead of yeast), buttermilk and salt.

Over time, the recipe became more extravagant with the addition of items like currants or raisins. Of course every Irish mammy has her own way of doing it, and anyone else’s recipe is a sacrilege. In fact, there’s even a Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, intent upon reminding people that the bread was a product of the Irish Famine.

At the Hoboken Irish Festival this Saturday, contestants are taking a slightly less gloomy approach with the Annual Irish Soda Bread Competition.

Anyone interested in putting their recipe (or their mammy’s recipe) to the test is welcome to enter. Contestants only need to bake ONE LOAF of Irish Soda bread, and provide one to two sentences of background as to why they think their recipe is the best. Email gfallo@hobokennj.org for more information.

A panel of judges will partake in the loaves and decide which one takes the cake… or is it a bread?

We’ll let the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread chew on that one for a bit, while we make our way over to Finnegan’s Beer Garden listening to Gold N’ Brown…

Slainte!