Bread

Wholemeal bread was the preferred option as ‘is sure to consist of pure ingredients while shop bread may often consist of coarse brands of flour’. Before the Famine people ate bread made from oatmeal and during the Famine they ground rye and oats with a quern. They also bought maize if they could afford it and could mix it with ‘white root’, like a parsnip though a ‘briscan’ was only available in limestone land. Bread was also made using potatoes, flour, butter, milk, salt and baking powder. This bread is nearly always baked on a griddle.

Cleggan, Co. Galway

Collector: Ita O’Toole

Informant: Unknown

Duchas, ‘The Schools’ Collection’, www.duchas.ie