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Easy Irish Soda Bread

Easy Irish Soda Bread, only 20 minutes prep time!

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,667 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 16
Prep20 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Soak the red currants in water for 15 to 20 minutes, then drain them well.

  2. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease a baking sheet with a little of the butter.

  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

  4. Cut the room temperature butter into the dry mixture with your fingers or a pastry cutter until it looks like coarse crumbs.

  5. Stir in the drained currants.

  6. Whisk the buttermilk and beaten egg together, pour into the flour mixture and stir just until a soft, sticky dough forms.

  7. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead gently two or three times, and shape into a round loaf about 7 inches across. Place it on the baking sheet.

  8. Cut a deep cross into the top of the loaf with a sharp knife.

  9. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until deep golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

  10. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before slicing.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Flour + buttermilktop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,667 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + buttermilktop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118,511 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, buttermilk, egg):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  3. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, buttermilk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).