PrintAuthenticity Versus Tastiness
Deb of Smitten Kitchen on blasphemous bread, after Melissa Clark's recent inauthentic Irish soda bread recipe in the NYT:
I’ve never made Irish soda bread before and eaten it almost as rarely, so I can’t offer a review with any authority, but what I loved about this article is neither could Clark. She was told by a friend married to an Irishman and living in his country that though her version was rich and lovely, it neither looked nor tasted like the real deal. Apparently, nobody in Ireland serves real soda bread anymore, she said, and even if they did, it would have no raisins, eggs, butter or caraway seeds. After trying a version faithful to the original and finding it delicious when warm, but hard, dry and bland when cold, Clark decided being authentic was overrated, and went back to her old formula.
Deb made bread from Clark's recipe anyway and found it to be "both crusty and tender, and manages to lock in its moisture in a way that reminds me of a certain vaulted scone. Yup, we’re talking about that level of good." Should tastiness triumph over authenticity? My common sense says yes, but the little prescriptivist living in my brain is throwing a fit. What do you think?
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3 Comments:
What people writing about food DO NOT actually KNOW about food could FILL the Grand Canyon. This recipe is for a giant scone baked in a skillet; not that it doesn't sound delicious. But it is decidedly not soda bread. Ireland has been a notoriously poor country and if families had had eggs or buttermilk (I won't even adress raisins and caraway seeds) they would have been sold at market not thrown into the daily bread.
Neither does the other recipe Ms. Clark was given sound like traditional Irish soda bread. My father worked in Ireland for several years and I went to school there. Soda bread is a wonderful thing and you CAN still find it in pubs, hotels and restaurants. As for it being dried out later on, ever bought a baguette, or left a slice of Pepperidge Farm white in the toaster too long before dropping down? That's what happens to bread, especially homemade, it dries out quickly.
Just because you can not find a decent recipe do not mislead people into thinking that soda bread is a leprechaun's pot of gold--it exists and it is delicious.
Deb07 at 3:14PM on 03/16/07
PS--This and this alone is soda bread:
12 oz wheat flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ pint sour milk, plus a bit more for safety’s sake
The day before, pour half pint of milk into a mug and sit it on the counter until it curdles. You can use buttermilk, just as you can curdle regular milk quicker with a spritz of fresh lemon juice.
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Put flour, salt and soda in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in milk and mix quickly with a fork; just as you would if you were making biscuits.
On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough very briefly. Form it into a round and flatten it a bit. Some people cut a cross in the top supposedly for religious reasons but it does seem to help the bread rise while baking.
Bake for 30 minutes but keep checking after about 20. Cool on a wire rack and store in a damp towel.
When it is too dry for you, you are supposed to use it for breakfast in this way: fry your bacon (or sausages), pour a bit of the drippings out, lay in slices of soda bread, turning over and over until brown. Serve under eggs with the bacon or sausages.
Schedule the stent implants for the following week.
Deb07 at 3:33PM on 03/16/07
Harry from Schnack here.. on the issue of Taste vs. Real,
I say make it anyway you want, but label it! For example we do our own twist on some things at Schnack, we label them "Schnack Style." The worst is Authentic Chinese Food that well, isn't Chinese.
When the marketing hits the road, people don't want to know that their favorite ethnic food isn't all that ethnic.
Chef Hawk at 3:48PM on 03/16/07