Q 01/05

Soda bread rises because baking soda reacts with the lactic acid in which ingredient?

A) Treacle

B) Beaten egg

C) Honey

D) Buttermilk

Answer · why

D) Buttermilk

The reaction starts immediately, so bakers mix the dough as little as possible and never knead it.

Q 02/05

What is soda bread made with raisins colloquially called in Ireland?

A) Spotted dog

B) Currant cake

C) Freckled loaf

D) Speckled hen

Answer · why

A) Spotted dog

The sweetened caraway-and-raisin version is now rare, while brown soda bread with smoked salmon came back via hotel menus in the 1960s.

Q 03/05

In Ulster, the sweetened wholemeal variety of soda bread usually goes by what name?

A) Griddle

B) Farmhouse

C) Treacle

D) Wheaten

Answer · why

D) Wheaten

Further south the same loaf is simply 'brown bread', and Ulster reserves 'soda bread' for the white savoury kind.

Q 04/05

Colcannon is a traditional dish on St Patrick's Day and on the feast day of which other Irish saint?

A) St Brigid

B) St Columba

C) St Finbarr

D) St Kevin

Answer · why

A) St Brigid

The name likely comes from Irish words for a 'white-headed' cabbage, and the same root names the coot, a white-headed bird.

Q 05/05

Champ is mashed potato mixed with butter, milk and which allium?

A) Scallions

B) Shallots

C) Garlic

D) Leeks

Answer · why

A) Scallions

In some areas it was made with stinging nettles instead, and 'as thick as champ' remains a Hiberno-English insult.