Ireland's Yellowmeal Griddle Bread

11.09.2023 - 16:35 / bbc.com / Peter Pan

Yellowmeal has been a cupboard staple of Irish kitchens for nearly 200 years. Its prevalence in Ireland is little known outside the country, as is the fact that it became a staple as a direct result of its use during the Great Irish Famine of the mid 19th Century.

Yellowmeal, or yellermeal, also known as maize or cornmeal, is made of dried corn kernels that have been ground into a fine, medium or coarse texture. It was used as a bulking agent whenever flour was in short supply or too expensive. But unlike the potato, its association with famine times has persisted without stigma; anyone under 40 is surprised the same yellowmeal that makes their Instagrammable taco was the same shipped to Ireland to stem the tide of famine-related disease and death.

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The presence of yellowmeal in Ireland stems back to when Ireland was still a colony of the British Empire governed by Westminster, when the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1849 took hold, decimating the population. Sir Robert Peel, Britain's prime minister during the famine, presided over the importation of maize from the Americas into Ireland to feed the hungry. It quickly adopted the moniker of "Peel's Brimstone" because of its indigestibility – knowledge of how to prepare it (a process called nixtamalisation) and cook it was initially unknown. But once the Irish learned how to use it, yellowmeal embedded itself into Irish foodways and found its way into many Irish dishes, from pancakes to potato cakes and breads.

There are two versions of yellowmeal bread still enjoyed today. One is a traditional style griddle or skillet bread similar to oat cakes or potato farls, made with little or no flour. The other is a baked loaf, like Irish soda bread but made with two-thirds flour and one-third bright yellowmeal, developed post-famine when flour and bicarbonate of soda became cheaper and easier to come by.

Soda bread is one of the first recipes mastered by students at Ballymaloe Cookery School, a bastion for preserving and teaching traditional Irish recipes. The school was established in 1983 by Darina Allen and her brother, Rory O'Connell, and has a global reputation for its emphasis on simple, traditional Irish recipes. Students travel from all over the world to learn how to cook with farm-fresh ingredients. One such culinary traveller arrived at Ballymaloe in the late 1980s, an Englishman named Barnaby Blacker.

Allen remembers Blacker as a deliciously eccentric character and a great cook. "He was known to us for his quirkiness, but his food was very Ballymaloe-ish – good ingredients, fresh ingredients served simply. He developed a very distinctive style and was a fantastic baker; incredibly well-read and erudite. He had a Peter Pan-like quality –