Irish Soda Bread Lab123 recipes

Irish Soda Bread Lab

Irish Soda Bread: what 123 recipes agree on

Bread without yeast: buttermilk and baking soda per 100 g of flour, plain to raisin-studded.

123 recipes from 78 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical loaf, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.

Recipes

123

from 78 sites

Typical flour

500 g

about 4 cups

Oven

400°F

205°C · median of 109

Bake time

40 min

most 28 to 48 min

The typical loaf of Irish soda bread

The median of all 123 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 500 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Typical Irish soda bread recipe in grams, with the range most recipes use
IngredientGrams
FlourThe scale for everything else500 gabout 4 cups
ButtermilkMost recipes use 375 to 475 g420 gabout 1 3/4 cups
Baking sodaMost recipes use 6 to 9 g6 g
Butter38% use none; the rest mostly 32 to 85 g28 gabout 2 tbsp
Sugar45% use none; the rest mostly 25 to 55 g5 gabout 1 1/4 tsp
Egg55% use none; the rest mostly 50 to 65 gnone
SaltMost recipes use 6 to 7 g6 g

Bake400°F (205°C) for about 40 minutes.

Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.

Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient

Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.

  1. Buttermilk

    median 84% · most 75 to 95%

    Buttermilk supplies the acid that sets off the baking soda, and the soft, sticky dough.

    0%50%100%150%
    Each dot is up to 3 recipes.

    range 45 to 110%

  2. Baking soda

    median 1.2% · most 1.2 to 1.7%

    Soda is the only leavening in the traditional loaf; about 1% of the flour.

    0%1%2%3%
    Each dot is up to 4 recipes.

    range 0.5 to 2.8%

  3. Butter

    median 5.6% · 38% use none

    Traditional Irish soda bread has none; American versions add butter for a richer, cakier loaf.

    0%10%20%30%
    Each dot is up to 6 recipes.

    range 0 to 27% · those that use some, mostly 6.3 to 17%

  4. Sugar

    median 1% · 45% use none

    None in the Irish original; sweet American loaves with raisins carry a good deal.

    0%10%20%30%
    Each dot is up to 7 recipes.

    range 0 to 24% · those that use some, mostly 5 to 11%

  5. Egg

    median 0% · 55% use none

    An American addition that makes the loaf more cake-like.

    0%10%20%30%
    Each dot is up to 8 recipes.

    range 0 to 23% · those that use some, mostly 10 to 13%

  6. Salt

    median 1.2% · most 1.1 to 1.5%

    About 1 to 1.5%.

    0%1%2%3%
    Each dot is up to 4 recipes.

    range 0.6 to 2.5%

Where recipes disagree

Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.

  • Butter. 38% of recipes use no butter, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 6.3 to 17% of the flour weight.
  • Sugar. 45% of recipes use no sugar, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 5 to 11% of the flour weight.

Recipes agree most on buttermilk and salt: buttermilk 75 to 95%, salt 1.1 to 1.5% for the middle half.

Around the world

111 of the recipes come in 3 languages with enough of each to compare: English 89, French 13, German 9.

  • Most French recipes use no butter (84%, against 24% of English recipes).
  • Most German recipes use no egg (100%, against 43% of English recipes).
Every language, ingredient by ingredient →

The most-reviewed recipes

23 Irish soda bread recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 100, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:

On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.

50+ ratings (23)the rest (100)middle half of all

  • Buttermilkthe most-reviewed recipes 83% vs the rest 84%

  • Baking sodathe most-reviewed recipes 1.2% vs the rest 1.3%

  • Butterthe most-reviewed recipes 5.6% vs the rest 5.6%

  • Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 0.4% vs the rest 1.3%

  • Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 9.6% vs the rest 0%

  • Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.2% vs the rest 1.2%

Most reviewed

  1. Irish Brown Soda Bread Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.com4.7 from 769 ratings
  2. Grandma's Irish Soda Bread · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.8 from 554 ratings
  3. Irish Soda Bread · foodnetwork.com4.6 from 413 ratings
  4. Irish Soda Bread Recipe · natashaskitchen.com5.0 from 399 ratings
  5. Veganes Irish Soda Bread · gutekueche.at · German4.1 from 327 ratings

Oven temperature and time

109 of 123 recipes state an oven temperature, and 33% of those bake at 400°F (205°C). The middle half bake at 375 to 400°F. The other 14 do not say.

  • 400°F37 recipes
  • 375°F29 recipes
  • 350°F15 recipes
  • 425°F15 recipes
  • 450°F9 recipes
  • 475°F3 recipes

117 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 40 minutes and the middle half bake 28 to 48 minutes.

Temperature and time together

The single most common pairing is 400°F for 40 to 45 minutes, with 9 of the 106 recipes that state both.

Rows: oven °F (°C in gray), every 25°F. Columns: minutes, 5 a column, from the start of each; the middle of a stated range counts. Darker: more recipes, up to 9 in one cell. Outlined: the median, 400°F for 40 minutes. 106 recipes state both. The edge rows and columns also hold the few recipes beyond them.

Recipes to start with

Closest to the typical loaf

Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.

Most buttermilk

Least buttermilk

All 123 Irish soda bread recipes →

Go deeper

Top sources

  • 9baketotheroots.de
  • 6foodnetwork.com
  • 5chefsimon.com
  • 5tasteofhome.com
  • 4kingarthurbaking.com
  • 3baking-sense.com
  • 3jessicagavin.com
  • 3laurasbakery.nl
  • 3marmiton.org
  • 3nigella.com
  • 3savingdessert.com
  • 2bakerbettie.com

In 7 languages: English 89, French 13, German 9, Dutch 6, Italian 3, Spanish 2, Portuguese 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 78 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.

How the numbers are made

Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.

97% of the 990 ingredient lines got a weight. 30% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.

A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 79 were left out: 58 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (buttermilk 23, baking soda 17, salt 9, butter 5, sugar 2, egg 2), 8 with a title that names a different dish, 6 too many lines without an amount, 4 duplicates of other pages, 2 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, and 1 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed.

Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.