2 1/2 cup mixed dry fruit--currants>>>
1 dark & golden raisins.
1 cup boiling black tea
1 each egg
1 tsp mixed spice (see note*)
4 tsp marmalade
1 cup (heaping)superfine sugar
2 1/2 cup self-rising flour
Directions
Place dried fruit in a bowl, cover with the hot tea and let soak
overnight. The next day, add the remaining ingreds. and mix well.
Preheat oven to 375 F. Pour batten into greased 7" square pan and
bake in the center of oven for 1 1/2 hrs. Let cool in the pan on
awire rack. Slice and serve buttered with tea.
NOTE* (Mixed spices: equal parts of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg,
allspice, and mace.
1. In Northern Ireland and in the Republic, BRACK is the Celtic
word for salt and is used to mean "bread". Barm brack is leavened
bread, the word BARM meaning yeast.
2. The term "barmbrack" for an Irish fruit loaf or cake does not
derive from barm or leaven. It is a corruption of the Irish word
"aran breac" (Speckled Bread).
Servings: 1 servings
Barm Brack (Traditional Irish Bread) Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Irish
The History of Recipes
We can track the history of meal recipes way back into distant history, certainly as far back into history as early Egypt, and maybe further still. However, generally, these early cook books were just simple hieroglyphic instructions for preparing meals.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to food historians is a collection of stone tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making those who drank it feel blissful. Progressing into The time of the roman empire 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a few documents detailing recipes enjoyed by his fellow Romans. In his publication, Apicius tells us how the meals were divided into appetizers, main meal and desserts, something that is very familiar to us today. This early Roman chef describes how the chefs of Roman times were skilled in the use of many herbs, including many that are still in use today such as thyme, fennel and asafoetida. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods and herbs from Arab cuisine, including parsley and basil. These new foods and spices led to an eruption in recipe books, some of which still exist in academic collections. For the centuries that followed, the upper-class families of Wesstern Europe competed to serve up the most extravagent meals, and because of this the best cooks and their recipe collections could command a high salary. Nevertheless, it was during the 19th century that cookery and recipe publications really came of age. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, devoted much of their lives to collecting, verifying, and recording the recipes that were being prepared for the better households. By the time we get to the 20th century, cookery publications were highly popular mostly as a result of higher levels of literacy, people having more leisure time and having more money to spend. |
We hope you enjoy this Barm Brack (Traditional Irish Bread) recipe.
