Soda Bread Contest Rules.

(Courtesy of the Seattle Irish Heritage Club and used with their permission)

This year the rules for the contest are specific--so read this page closely. There are three divisions:

Traditional white soda bread
Traditional brown soda bread
Glorified soda bread

Traditional White Soda Bread

Entries in this division must contain these four ingredients:

Wheat flour
Soured milk
Baking Soda (also called bread soda and sodium bicarbonate)
Salt

Do not use self rising flour or baking powder. Bread that contains ingredients other than the four listed above will be entered in the glorified soda bread division.

Traditional Brown Soda Bread

Entries in this division contain these four ingredients:

Whole wheat flour (no white flour allowed)
Soured milk
Baking soda (also called bread soda and sodium bicarbonate)
Salt

Do not use self rising flour or baking powder. Bread that contains ingredients other than the four listed above will be entered in the glorified soda bread division.

Glorified Soda Bread

Entries in this division are based on these ingredients:
Any kind of flour
Any source of acid (necessary to activate the chemical leavener)
Any chemical leavener (inc baking soda, baking powder, & self-rising flour)
Salt to taste

This division is for glorified soda bread. Do not “glorify” the bread so much that is becomes a cake! This year, bread shaped cakes will be disqualified. A cake is a sweet dessert that contains sugar and eggs and is made from a batter. Bread is a food of leavened flour that is made from a dough. The judges should be able to recognize your entry as a loaf of bread and not a cake. Because this is a soda bread contest, no yeast risen breads are allowed.

This where you enter your aunt Mary’s traditional soda bread that called for mashed potatoes and currents. Or your mother’s traditional soda bread that included wheat bran, caraway seeds, an egg and raisins. Or maybe your own creation that uses soured goat milk, golden raisins soaked in whiskey, white flour and a drop of green food coloring.

Explanation of Ingredients

Wheat flour

Only wheat flour is allowed. For best results use an unbleached fresh locally milled flour. Low protein flours are best for soda risen bread so use soft wheat flour, pastry flour and flours marked for use in quick breads. Hard flours should be used only for yeast risen breads so avoid bread flour, flours that are marked “best for bread” and flours made entirely of hard wheat. You can use all purpose flour which is a mix of high (hard) and low (soft) protein flours too.

For whole wheat soda bread you can use any whole wheat flour. For best results use stone ground flour that is locally milled. You can find flours from two local mills in your grocery store: Bob’s Red Mill and Stone Buhr.

Do not use self-rising flour –some may contain baking powder.

Sour (Cow’s) milk

In Ireland buttermilk was usually used to make soda bread. The buttermilk used by our ancestors was the liquid left after butter was churned. Without refrigeration it soured naturally giving soda bread it characteristic tang and activated the bread soda to raise the loaf. Left over milk that had soured was used too. Today’s buttermilk is a cultured milk product made by adding bacterial cultures to milk and allowing it to sour. You can use any cultured (soured) milk product or sour your own milk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to two cups of low fat milk.

Baking soda (also known as Bread Soda)

The chemical name for baking or bread soda is sodium bicarbonate. When the alkaline sodium bicarbonate comes into contact with the acid from the sour milk, carbon dioxide gas is produced and raises your loaf. This is the cheapest ingredient; don’t skimp and use the box of baking soda in the back of your fridge. Old soda can produce too dense a loaf.

Baking powder is not the same product as baking soda and is not allowed in this competition.

Thomas Francis Meagher Division of AOH
P.O. Box 1916
Helena, Montana 59624