Somewhat off topic:

Fwiw, the current Mudcat thread BS: Biscuits(cookies): Nature's Wonder Food
thread.cfm?threadid=102644&messages=11 motivated me to look up Internet articles on shortning bread.

Here's one website that may be of interest to Mudcat members & guests:

"Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread

Dedicated to promoting the traditional Irish Soda Bread as baked by our great-great-grandparents.

Over 30,000 soda bread lovers visited this page in March 2006!

If your soda bread has raisins in it, it's called "Spotted Dog"!

If it contains raisins, eggs, baking powder, sugar or shortening, it's called "cake", not "bread".
...

Here you will find history and background information on Irish Soda bread...The site was inspired by my personal love of historical accuracy and Irish soda bread...

If one searches the internet using the term "Traditional Irish Soda Bread" an amazing number of recipes appear. 98% of them incorrect.

Would "French Bread" (15th century) still be the same if whiskey, raisins, or other ingredients were added to the mix? Would Jewish Motzah still be traditional if chocolate chips and raisins were added? So why is traditional "Irish Soda Bread" (19th century) not given the same respect by modern-day bakers?...

http://www.bookguy.com/cooking/Sodabread.htm

-snip-

Recipes for Irish Soda Bread are given on this page of that site:

http://www.bookguy.com/cooking/SodabreadRecipes.htm

Here is an excerpt from that page:

"All recipes for traditional soda bread contain flour, baking soda, sour milk (buttermilk) and salt.

This was a daily bread that didn't keep long and had to be baked every day or so. It was not a festive "cake" and did not contain whisky, candied fruit, caraway seeds, raisins (add raisins to the recipe and it becomes "Spotted Dog" not to be confused with the pudding made with suet of the same name), or any other ingredient. There are recipes for those type of cakes but they are not the traditional soda bread eaten by the Irish daily since the mid 19th century.   Here are a few basic recipes. Note that measurements below are in American standards. (An Irish teaspoon is not the same as an American teaspoon measurement.)"

...

Brown Bread

3 cups (12 oz) of wheat flour
1 cup (4 oz) of white flour (do not use self-rising as it already contains baking powder and salt)
2 ounces of butter
14 ounces of buttermilk (pour in a bit at a time until the dough is moist)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425 F. degrees. Lightly crease and flour a cake pan. In a large bowl sieve and combine all the dry ingredients. Rub in the butter until the flour is crumbly.

Add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough. Place on floured surface and lightly knead (too much allows the gas to escape)

Shape into a round flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.

Cover the pan with another pan and bake for 30 minutes (this simulates the bastible pot). Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped to show it is done.

Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.

Let cool and you are ready to have a buttered slice with a nice cup of tea or coffee.