Irish bread and cheese?

I'll be attending an Irish-themed dinner and we've been assigned bread and cheese. I'm happy to bake a bread, but I'm not up to making the cheese. Any suggestions for bread recipes and where and what type of cheese to get?

Thanks,
Jonah

Hi,

Costco is selling (as of last week) Irish Butter and Irish Cheeses.

Galway Bakers is a source for locally baked Irish breads, cakes and scones.

Regards,

I have seen Irish cheeses under the brand name Kerrygold inconstantly at Dominix, the Jewels, and Buttera (among others) both in the cheese cases and in the delis. All that I've sampled have been good. I particularly like the "Blarney Cheese." They are more expensive than they should be due to trade regulations but certaintly worth it to celebrate a holiday.

I also seem to see their trucks everywhere?!

-ramon

I picked up a chunk of cheese yesterday at Whole Foods labeled 'Dubliner' that was very tasty and I think going for about $6.99 per pound. They also had two varieties of "Irish Butter" in the case.

A lot of local bakeries will run specials on Brown bread, soda bread, cabbage bread and scones around this time of year. If you don't feel up to the baking.

Costco usually has great prices on Kerrygold cheeses, about half the price of Dominick's. Of course, you have to buy 2 lbs. at a time. BTW Kerrygold is a brand name of the Irish Dairy Board, an industry marketing co-op with offices in Wilmette.

Trader Joe's usually has Dubliner and I think it's cheaper than
6.95 @ pound.

I've recently enjoyed a creamy blue called Cashel Blue from Whole Foods in Evanston. Treasure Island (Wilmette) had it last winter as well. Taking a page from the French, you might enjoy a little butter with your blue cheese (Bleu de Bresse may be served with sweet butter). Kerrygold Irish butter could also work nicely with the Cashel Blue. And what better bread to serve than a simple soda bread made just before serving with buttermilk, salt, soda and flour? ( I could pm you the recipe if you like.)

Here's a really simple and delicious bread recipe which I tried this past Saturday.

Irish Soda Bread
(adapted from The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors)

3 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 deg.

Mix dry ingredients.

Add buttermilk and knead gently to combine.

Form dough into a round loaf(the surface will be rough) and slash top
of loaf with a sharp knife.

Rest 10 minutes, then bake for 40-50 min.

foodie1 wrote:Here's a really simple and delicious bread recipe which I tried this past Saturday.

Irish Soda Bread
(adapted from The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors)
...
1.5 tbsp cornstarch

The addition of cornstarch is new to me. I'm intrigued by this- did the cornstarch change the texture of the bread?

Thanks

Irish Cheeses, Neal's Yard (Whole Foods)
Durrus - Washed, Cow
Ardrahan - Washed, Cow
Cashel Blue - Blue, Cow (as mentioned above)
Crozier Blue - Blue, Sheep (same folks as Cashel, the Grubbs)
Gubbeen - Washed, cow
Coolea - Gouda style

Other Irish Cheeses (sometimes available this time of year):
Cahill's Porter - Cheddar and Porter beer
Boilie Goat and Cow - little rounds of cheese packed in oil
Mileens - Cow, Washed
Desmond - Cow, hard, good for grating
Gabriel - Cow, hard, good for grating
St. Tola's Goat log - fresh goat, in a large log
Saint Killian -- I can't really recall at this moment

For a better description go to Cais, the Irish Cheese Board's website. Hours of fun!

For a very comprehensive list of Irish Food producers (not necessarily exporting to the US) check out Bord Bia

The source of this recipe (Ramonita's Ireland born Grandma-in-law) makes the best soda bread:

Irish Soda Bread

2 ½ C flour
½ C sugar
½ t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 ½ C butter
1 ½ C raisins
1 egg
1 ¼ - 1 ½ C buttermilk

Cut cold butter into dry ingredients. Beat buttermilk with egg and combine with dry ingredients with spoon. Bake at 350 for approx 60 min in parchment lined 9” circular pan.

-ramon

As you may have seen in another thread, I'm going to be making soda bread for an Irish dinner. The recipes seem to be of two types, those that are pretty plain, and those that seem sweeter, with more sugar and raisans (and fairly often caraway seeds). Yours seems on the sweeter raisin side. Do you happen to know if the two types are eaten at different occasions?

Thanks,
Jonah

I have seen two types of soda bread both here in my Irish born parents home and in Ireland on numerous visits to family there; the one with raisins usually has sugar, sometimes butter. All the versions I have seen include buttermilk and baking soda (hence the name), baking powder or cream of tartar. There is also a brown soda bread which is widely available in Ireland. It is not sweetened, no raisins, and is brown from the addition of wheat bran. I cant help with measurements because I learned it by feel. I would guess that the brown bread is roughly 3 cups flour, 3/4 cup of wheat bran. 1 egg, 1+ cups of buttermilk, 1ts baking soda, 1/2 ts baking powder and cream of tartar. bake 350 roughly 1 hour.

Both of these are served at breakfast, tea, whenever, with butter and jam. In fact at many homes and B&Bs in Ireland you wil see them served together in the same basket.

Ok, a small private school down the street had a bake sale this week. I picked up a loaf that was marked "Mrs. Sheehan's Soda Bread". With a name like that, I figured I couldn't go wrong. Well, whoever she is, Mrs. Sheehan certainly outdid herself.

From the outside, the loaf was a golden caramel brown very much like a pound cake. The bread had plenty of sweet moist raisins, but the bread itself was not very sweet at all (I am using past tense because the loaf was gone in a couple of hours). It had a moist denseness and flavor that definitely came from buttermilk, but I am almost certain it had no actual butter (it was moist but not rich). Surprisingly, despite its density, the bread was very porous with larger air bubbles. In that respect, it was more like a yeast bread than a quick bread(I suspect the batter was still lumpy when it was poured into the pan). That gave it an airy texture that balanced its cake-like consistency.

What Mrs Sheehan's bread had, that I have not seen in these recipes, is Carraway seeds. Not a lot of them. Just enough to give a slight bitterness to the bread which contrasted wonderfully with the plump sweet raisins. In fact, the bread was all about contrasting textures, consistencies and flavors. Just wonderful. Needless to say, I went back to the bake sale the next day, looking for more of Mrs. Sheehan's delectable Soda Bread. Of course, the last loaf was long gone. Now, I guess I will have to wait until the next bake sale for more. Well anyhow, Happy St. Paddy's day to you, Mrs. Sheehan and all the rest of my Irish brethren.

My day got off to the wrong foot and I ended up not making any soda bread this year. I stopped off at the bakery to pick up a loaf and also got wrangled into their daily special of cabbage/sauerkraut bread. The girl at the bakery insisted that this was a special bread they make in Ireland but I can't ever recall my Irish grandfather eating or making it. I thought it might go well with the stew I'm making tonight for dinner.

I had a friend tell me that the sauerkraut bread is more a Ukranian thing than and Irish thing so I'm sort of curious about it now. Anyone know?

I also put in an order for zeppole for St. Joseph's day on Sunday. I remember my grandmother always having these after church when I was a kid. She's sinced passed and I'm not sure where she got hers from I think maybe another neighbor that was a very accomplished baker because I've never had any so good as those.

_____No offense to anyone on the posting, but my honeymoon was a two-week tour of Ireland with my wife and my goal in coming back was Irish Brown Bread.
_____I don’t care what people have said or enjoy with “Irish Soda Bread”, this is the recipe I have found and modified to make a truly REAL brown bread.

1 ¾ C – All Purpose Flour
1 ¾ C – Whole Wheat Four
3 T – toasted Wheat Bran
3 T – toasted Wheat Germ
¼ C – old-fashoned Oats
2 T – Dark Brown Sugar
1 t – Baking Soda
1 t – salt
2 T – Unsalted Butter
2 C – Buttermilk

1) Preheat oven to 425
2) Grease 9x5x3 – inch loaf pan
3) Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and mix well
4) Add softened butter and stir in buttermilk to form soft-sticky dough
5) Transfer dough to pan and bake for 40+ minutes

*I find that this is often not enough time, so I’m open to suggestions for temp & time…

I'll second the motion for Irish Brown Bread! Although my Irish colleen of a wife makes soda bread on a regular basis, we too were converted to Irish Brown Bread on a trip to the old sod. It is brilliant. Deep rich flavors, the perfect foundation for a generous knife-full of Irish Butter.

The Celtic Knot in Evanston serves authentic Irish Brown Bread.

Buddy

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:The Celtic Knot in Evanston serves authentic Irish Brown Bread.

I'm so there...thanks for the tip. Maybe they'll even share some fine tuning of the time and temp for my recipe (above)?

Bump for 2009 update (well, update request):

Do any bakeries in Chicago currently sell traditional Irish brown bread over the counter?

Santander wrote:Do any bakeries in Chicago currently sell traditional Irish brown bread over the counter?

It's not exactly a bakery but Winston's sells their own brown bread. At least they used to; I haven't checked recently. It would be the first place I'd call.

Winston’s Market
4701 W 63rd St
Chicago
773-767-4353


Winston's Market
7961 159th St
Tinley Park IL
708-633-7500