icon-background-square
New
New
Year 4

Making Irish soda bread

I can use food skills to make Irish soda bread.

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 4

Making Irish soda bread

I can use food skills to make Irish soda bread.

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Irish soda bread originates from Ireland in the 1830s, a time of financial hardship.
  2. To ensure that a recipe works, it is important to weigh and measure ingredients accurately.
  3. The food skills used to make Irish soda bread are measuring, mixing, shaping, scoring and using the oven.
  4. The bread rises due to bicarbonate of soda being added. During cooking, it produces gas bubbles.
  5. Hands should be thoroughly washed to prevent dirt or bacteria contaminating our food.

Keywords

  • Dough - a mix of flour and water or milk

  • Soda bread - a type of bread which is quick to make

  • Bicarbonate of soda - a white powder used to make food rise when baked

  • Bacteria - tiny, single-celled organisms (some are harmless, some cause food poisoning)

Common misconception

People with an allergy cannot eat bread.

Some people have an allergy to flour made from wheat, which many breads are made from. There are other flours that can be used, so they can eat bread.


To help you plan your year 4 cooking and nutrition lesson on: Making Irish soda bread, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Encourage pupils to watch and talk about the different food reactions that take place when making soda bread. For example, the lemon juice curdling the milk (making it lumpy and sour), and the reaction of bicarbonate of soda in helping the bread to rise (bubbles in the dough).
speech-bubble
Teacher tip
equipment-required

Equipment

For ingredients and equipment see the recipe in additional materials.

content-guidance

Content guidance

  • Risk assessment required - may contain allergens
  • Risk assessment required - equipment
supervision-level

Supervision

Adult supervision required

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Loading...

6 Questions

Q1.
Which piece of equipment would you use to weigh flour?
An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: An image in a quiz
An image in a quiz
Q2.
True of false? If you have long hair you do not need to tie it up before cooking.
True
Correct answer: False
Q3.
Match the equipment to the food skill:
Correct Answer:grater,grating
tick

grating

Correct Answer:vegetable knife,cutting
tick

cutting

Correct Answer:mixing spoon,mixing
tick

mixing

Correct Answer:oven,baking
tick

baking

Q4.
What is happening here?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: Milk is being measured in a measuring jug.
Milk is being measured with measuring spoons.
Milk is being measured using weighing scales.
Q5.
Where should you store the following foods?
Correct Answer:cupboard,can of soup, packet of rice
tick

can of soup, packet of rice

Correct Answer:fridge,block of cheese, a tub of hummus
tick

block of cheese, a tub of hummus

Correct Answer:freezer,ice cream, fish fingers
tick

ice cream, fish fingers

Q6.
We need a variety of different foods to be .
Correct Answer: healthy
Q1 image 1 Dpbsmith/Wikimedia Commons Images

5 Questions

Q1.
True or false? People with an allergy cannot eat bread.
True
Correct answer: False
Q2.
Wholemeal, plain and strong are all types of .
Correct Answer: flour, flours
Q3.
Match the following:
Correct Answer:Wholemeal flour has ...,more of the wheat grain.
tick

more of the wheat grain.

Correct Answer:Lemon juice gives ...,the milk a sour taste.
tick

the milk a sour taste.

Correct Answer:The sour milk helps ...,the bicarbonate of soda make bubbles.
tick

the bicarbonate of soda make bubbles.

Q4.
Some can cause food poisoning, so it is important to wash our hands when we cook.
Correct Answer: bacteria
Q5.
Put this soda bread recipe in the correct order.
1 - First, pour the lemon juice into the milk.
2 - Mix the flour, milk and bicarbonate of soda together to form a soft dough.
3 - Shape into a flat ball and place on a baking tray.
4 - Score (cut) a cross on the top.
5 - Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Additional material

Download additional material