‘Give us this day our daily bread’

Adrian Quinn is an old friend who earns his crust (if you’ll pardon the pun!) as a bread salesman. Adrian is a hard worker, who would have made a good living at anything he turned his hand to, but is there any more noble occupation than distributing bread? Furthermore, with the cost of living spiralling all the time, surely there is no greater value in the supermarket or local shop than a loaf of bread? For around €2, nobody need ever go hungry.

Published: Sat 14 Oct 2023, 1:15 PM

While the potato will always be associated with Ireland, we have just as great a love affair with bread – dating back a thousand years. The Normans showed us how to separate the bran and that is when white bread was born. It is the oldest human-made food and evidence has been found that bread was baked as far back as 10,000 years ago.

When I was a child, every housewife baked her own bread for her family. This has all changed nowadays, and the bulk of bread is sourced from the supermarket shelf or the local shop. Still, the art of baking is practised in some houses right up until the present day, and whenever that glorious aroma of freshly baked bread hits my nostrils, I am transported back to a different time and the happy memories it invokes.

Our friend, Elsie, often brings me a sample of her brilliant baking skills. My late mother-in-law was the best brown bread baker of all time. Pity she didn’t pass the skill on to any of her daughters!

Despite what some might have you believe, bread is not fattening. It is a staple part of a healthy diet, and up to 70 percent of our daily calorie count. It provides the necessary carbohydrates to give us energy and ensure that our digestive system works correctly. There is bread on the table for just about every meal in Ireland – and we don’t forget to leave the butter beside it – unlike in Spain!

Bread is a nutritious food. Remember that (while we are not recommending it!) men have lived for years on nothing but bread and water. This tells us all we need to know about the benefits of bread.

Like we said, we Irish don’t need any encouragement to graze on bread. If there was ever a doubt about that, just think back to February 2018, when the ‘Beast from the East’ came a -calling. Loaves were stacked in cupboards and guarded with the defiance of a Fort Knox security guard. Same thing with the Covid lockdown, when my chest freezer, and everyone else’s, was packed with pans.

The ‘breaking of bread’ is often referred to down through history and symbolises much more than just eating food. Sitting down together and ‘breaking bread’ was often seen as a conciliatory act of peace-making and goodwill. In biblical times, both in the Old and New Testaments, bread is a recurring element.

Bread in the bible also symbolises life, sustenance and divine presence. Indeed, didn’t Jesus himself include a reference to bread in the one prayer that he taught us; ‘give us this day our daily bread’.

Mind you, my Spanish grandchildren had a different view of the Last Supper, when, taking translation into account, they informed me on a Good Friday that Jesus and the rest of them ‘had their last bit of dinner last night!’. I was also told not to worry because, despite the crucifixion, ‘Jesus woke up on Sunday morning without a bother on him!’.

But back to the bread… I remember when the first sliced-pans came to the shop. Up until then, you could buy either a pan loaf, or a batch loaf. The loaves were stuck together in the shop and were handled and sold without any wrapping – and still we survived! My father had to have home-baked bread and was dismissive of the white ‘shop bread’. ‘It has nothing any good in it,’ he would claim.

We have come a long way from just making do with the pan or the batch loaf. There is so much choice from the array of bread on the supermarket shelf today. My favourite bread is ‘Brennan’s Chia’. It has a lovely blend of seeds and flavour – and they say it’s good for you! But one of the lovely little treats to myself hasn’t changed for half a century. I ask you, is there anything nicer than a round of toast made from a batch loaf? You toast it lightly, spread the Kerrygold butter unsparingly, and then top it off with a layer of marmalade. That is my favourite snack at any time of day or night… which reminds me; time to put the kettle on!