…‘we’? nope.
American Soda Bread is not Barmbrack. And neither is it derived from it. Its more soda bread that’s failed its way upwards to an erstatz Barmbrack. Barmbrack is yeasted, sweetened and always has dried fruit. And its more of a tea cake than it is a bread.
American soda bread has two things going on. One the Irish always snuck sugar and dried fruits into soda bread if they could afford it on special occasions and as a treat. Sort of the way you’re mom might sneak chocolate chips into your pancakes on your birthday. Those things tended to get a different name though. And two our flour in the US has too much protein, and our whole wheat flour has too little in the way of course bran chunkies. So between attempting to make our flours work for the bread. Need to add fat to limit gluten production as an example. And the better access to things like sugar and fruits. We’ve arrived at a weird situation where American soda bread bears no resemblance to its source, and is barely edible.
A visiting family member recently asked me “what the fuck was with that weird bread? It was like a shitty tea cake”
Is it brown. I might get to yelling if its not brown.
So, a question for the Irish. Is this the best St. Patrick’s Day ever?
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We can agree to disagree on some of this. I never said that American soda bread was like barm because it used yeast. It’s like barn because Americans put so much shit into it like it’s a Christmas fruit cake. Traditional Irish soda bread is plain. Maybe has some raisins…MAYBE…to your point if it was a special occasion or a holiday. But soda bread is meant to be plain and fairly neutral in its flavor. It should’ve a hearty and dense loaf to be used for sopping gravy and stews.
Here in the states “Irish soda bread” is routinely soft and slightly airy. It is filed with all sorts of fruits and covered in seeds. Which is more like a bram. At least in my family anyway.
And I concur on the brown part because I love brown bread which is different here but a descendant of soda bread.
Yep, pretty much! 
So, yet another self-identified (family identified) Irish American here. Much like @anon61833566, my family too made a traditional Irish American meal (from my father’s side, as that’s the Irish side) - not nearly as elaborate as theirs - but we did corned beef, potatoes and cabbage, and I’ve added a version of Irish soda bread to that meal every year. We’re lucky enough to know where that side of the family came from - my great, great grandfather came from Co. Kerry during the period the lesser famine and I suspect that we could probably find distant cousins there, if we spent time looking - my aunt did a bit in some of the times she spent in Ireland as an educator for first responders.
Much of that side of the family is catholic (my sister and I weren’t raised in the church for reasons). My mother’s side is Scottish and English heritage, my dad’s mother was English, french, and Scottish heritage… meaning there isn’t much “Irish” blood in my veins, but it’s much less about that and more about identity, community, and shared culture than anything else. My family on that side kept a strong Irish identity through the years, and I do too, despite the fact that I’m far removed from immigration. it’s not like the Irish are the only people in American to do this - many peoples do this and consider themselves a diaspora, in part because (as we well know right now from our modern political landscape) immigrants are often looked down upon and embracing the family heritage is a means of building up communal and social ties against that. And of course Irish Americans have also participated themselves in the denigration of other ethnicities in American history - the Chinese on the railroads for example.
So, am I Irish - well, no. But to say that some idea of being Irish doesn’t inform my identity, because of my family would be wrong to say as well.
That’s basically what I make - flour, baking soda/powder, salt, butter, buttermilk, and egg thrown together, baked for 45 minutes or so, and it tastes great with my corned beef and cabbage (which I can smell cooking away right now.
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No. You said:
What Americans are making and calling Soda Bread is not Barmbrack. Or even an attempt at it. Its not that we’ve confused the two. I brought up the yeast because its the central reason the two aren’t similar.
Barmbrack is levened with yeast. And the batter sometimes uses egg.
The american soda bread is still leavened with soda and butter milk.
Yeast leavening gives an entirely different flavor, structure and even color than chemical levening. I’ve never handed a piece of barmbrack to some one and had them misidentify it as soda bread. Most people seem to think it’s fruit cake. And the soda bread you pick up at the supermarket bears little resemblance to barmbrack. Aside from having fruit in it.
I would be ecstatic if soda bread I could purchase locally was “soft and slightly airy”. The American default is best described as hard, dense, and oddly soggy. Most American sourced soda bread recipes I’ve tried produce the same. Soda bread should have a fine, dense crumb. And it should be firm rather than cakey. But it should definitely be tender and not leaden.
I mostly see raisins. Once or twice cranberries. As the fruit in there. But bakeries will toss all sorts of fruits and seeds in there
American Soda Bread and recipes the resulting “bread” most closely resemble poorly made scones.
Yes. All I was pointing out is the fruit in the American kind didn’t come from barmbrack. It comes from a documented tradition of tossing some fruit in that shit on Christmas and Easter. Which went overboard when the Irish landed in the us. Where they could afford to do that all the time.
Brown bread is soda bread. Its less a descendant than just the whole meal flour variation. And has existed about as long as white soda bread has. And its largely the default format in Ireland. Though the white is apparently having a bit of a come back these days.
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Cool story. Like I said. We can just agree to disagree. Because my family lineage says otherwise.
Oh. Also so does my historical knowledge as a chef. But it’s easier to simply say what do I know. You’re right. I’m wrong. Cool. Enjoy your day.
Because I really don’t care about what your perspective is at this point in the day.
Speaking of St Patrick…
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Wow.
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