It’s also a lot more complicated. Cluskey, the owner of Dublin-based Bread 41, strongly believes that bread can also help us reconnect with the people and the place around us. “Bread is everything,” he says. “Go meet the miller, go meet the grower, go meet the baker. Talk to them about where the food comes from. Make connections.”
The quality of his bread, along with the ethos that drives it, is what has led to the Irish Food Writers’ Guild awarding Bread 41 one of its coveted 2022 Food Awards.
Despite the negative pressure that carbohydrates have been getting in recent years, Cluskey is an advocate for how nutritious a sourdough loaf can be. Sourdough bread, made by fermenting flour and water, takes more time than industrial bread production using the Chorleywood Bread Process (CBP). Introduced in the 1960s, the CBP method of speeding up breadmaking uses added enzymes and a high-speed mixing process to create the kind of wrapped, soft, fluffy sliced bread that is now available everywhere. From flour to sliced loaf, it takes less than four hours.
Research has shown that sourdough made properly with a long and slow fermentation time – at Bread 41, they ferment the bread for up to 48 hours – has higher levels of B vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than other breads. It also improves its digestibility.
Bread 41’s Pearse Street, Dublin, bakery (until they sell out) are made using what Cluskey calls “real ingredients”. A certain amount of the organic flour they use is milled on-site, Irish heritage grains are sourced from the Irish Organic Mill in Monaghan, and spelt comes from Kildare. The loaves include a wholegrain sourdough, the Glentie malt loaf with malted organic grains and soaked seeds; oat porridge loaf, which comes with whole rye and roasted oatmeal; the Shakelton seven seed; and a 60% rye Wicklow Mountain Rye loaf. It’s a positive litany of multi-grain goodness.
“Now we understand more about bran and fiber in the diet,” says Cluskey, “and how important it is to make something digestible.”
For Cluskey, the flavor of the bread is key: “fresh grain helps build that flavor profile. You’re eating something that tastes of fermentation, but it has to taste good as well. Food should be enjoyable and be nutritious rather than just something you have to consume.”
He believes the “link between gut and brain” is all-important and crusty bread has a role to play in that. “What’s good for the tummy is good for the head. When you bite into that crust of bread, it releases endorphins, gets your taste buds moving, makes you feel happy and well.”
Real bread is also something Cluskey believes should be accessible to everyone. When the great sourdough surge started during the first Covid lockdown in March 2020, Bread 41 handed out sourdough starters to anyone interested. “Some people are still making bread from starters that they got then. It’s a real pat on the back when everyone likes your bread. You feel very appreciated.”
Cluskey also recorded step-by-step videos to guide people through the bread-making process. It was a win-win situation: not only did people learn how to make bread for themselves, they also came to understand just how much work and time goes into making a loaf of really good bread.
Time is important to Cluskey, not just the time that it takes to make his bread but time to eat and enjoy it. A father of two young children, he’s observed the lack of focus on food at school. “We teach them everything else, but not to eat. Lunchtime should be important too but there’s not enough time. Those nutritious packed lunches that you’ve made them? They come home unfinished. If the kids actually ate their lunches, they would have more concentration and stay attentive,” he says.
At home, however, we have a choice. “It’s so important to make time to sit down and eat. If you cannot make time for that, there’s a serious problem,” says Cluskey. “I see a table and a gang of people coming together around it. When we sit down with family or friends, it’s not just about consuming. Food eaten together slows you down, just as the crust on a loaf is about making you slow down and learn about flavour.”
By taking simple, sustainable ingredients and fermenting them over time, Cluskey has created not only an award-winning business but an ethos, using bread as an agent for change, one delicious and nutritious loaf at a time.
Patrick O’Reilly’s sourdough took gold at the 2019 Blas na hEireann awards and it’s no wonder. He’s a man with a vocation, taking plenty of time to make breads with a complexity of flavor that’s hard to forget. Find these loaves at his lovely Westport bakery, which is part of the Mayo Gourmet Greenway – a fuel stop here, and you’ll be all set for the 17.5km trail. instagram.com/cornrue_bakery
Former teacher Sharon Gleeson and her partner Cathal O’Mahony opened their bakery in Midleton in August 2020 and haven’t stopped since. Queues outside their Broderick Street shop are a familiar sight, as people patiently wait for the sourdough loaves, including one made from stoneground ølands and purple wheat flour. They now have a second outlet on Washington Street in Cork City. thegrumpybakers.ie
Sarah Richardson initially started selling her bread at farmer’s markets around Waterford, opening Seagull Bakery in Tramore in 2016 and following this with shops in Waterford and Dunmore East in 2021. Richardson has a firm focus on nutrition and her much-loved sourdough range includes white, seaweed, Irish grain heritage and rye loaves. seagullbakery.ie
Embarking on their sourdough adventures in 2010 with a small wood-fired bread oven at their home in Co Donegal, Kemal and Rachel Scarpello have gone on to open a bakehouse and pizzeria in Derry. Sourdough is still king, with malted, seeded, tomato and herb loaves available to buy alongside Neapolitan-style pizza made using a sourdough base. scarpelloandco.com
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