Irish Soda Bread

		The 19th Century Irish used a "Bastible" pot, or pot oven, for cooking. Basically, that's what we now call a Dutch Oven.

4	cups (16 oz)	All Purpose Flour
1	Teaspoon	Baking SODA
1	Teaspoon	salt
14	ounces	buttermilk

	or a Brown Bread Recipe (below)
4	cups	Stone Ground Whole Wheat flour
2	cups	white flour
1 1/2	teaspoons	Baking SODA
1 1/2	teaspoons	salt
2	cups	buttermilk

In the Dutch Oven (bastible), mix the dry ingredients (whole wheat flour thoroughly with the white flour if Brown bread), salt, and baking soda.
Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and slowly mix in the buttermilk as you stir with a wooden spoon. You may need less buttermilk, so add the buttermilk slowly.

Knead the dough into a ball in the mixing bowl with your floured hands. The dough should be soft and mushy and makes forms. Pull the ball out and lightly flour the inside of the Dutch Oven. Put the ball back in the Dutch Oven and with the palm of your hand flatten out in a circle 1 1/2 inches thick.

With a knife dipped in flour, make a cross through the center of the bread so that it will easily break into quarters when it is baked.

Place 20 briquettes on the top and 10 briquettes on the bottom and cook for 45 minutes. Rotate the oven often to avoid hot spots.

The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped to show it is done.

If the crust seems too hard, place a towel over the bread and sprinkle the towel with water. Place the loaf standing upright until it is cool. The bread should not be cut until it has set, about 2 hours after it comes out of the oven, or sooner if you're hungry! I've cut it right out of the oven and it's wonderful!

The Irish back then had no electricity or electric or gas ovens. They used a "bastible" or pot oven. The bastible was the main way of cooking. Turf was used to make the fire. They cut the turf in the bog, dried it and drew it home with donkeys and baskets. The turf coals were placed on the lid and the fire distributed under and around the sides. It was the most useful utensil around the house (and the campsite).