Yeast of Eden Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fairy bread

Fairy bread is definitely a dessert as you wouldn't want to use it to make traditional sandwiches or dip in soup! It is generally made from a slice of white bread, butter (or some other form of spread such as chocolate or honey) and sprinkles, which are tiny pieces of sugar or candy designed for decorating cakes and desserts.

A short poem entitled 'Fairy Bread' is included in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1885 poetry collection for children, 'A Child's Garden of Verses'.

Answer: Sweet corn

Mealie bread is a type of corn bread made with sweet corn rather than cornmeal. It can be either baked or steamed and is often eaten hot, with a coating of butter.

Sweet corn is a variety of maize which is harvested while the kernels (the little yellow bits) are still immature. The 'cob' is the central part of the ear of corn to which the kernels are attached. Corn on the cob is prepared by boiling or grilling the whole ear of corn and is often served up on a skewer so that the yellow kernels can be easily picked off the inedible 'cob'.

Answer: Raisins, sultanas, flour and rum

The district of Eden is named after the River Eden which flows from the hills of south-east Cumbria to the Solway Firth. Cumbrian Christmas Bread is a spicy fruit loaf, for which serving suggestions include buttering, toasting or even turning into bread and butter pudding!

Fruit loaves and cakes are a Christmas tradition in many countries, with examples including German Stollen and Italian Panettone. The fruit involved is predominantly varieties of dried grape (raisins, currants and sultanas) rather than any of the other combinations suggested as alternative answers.

Answer: Soda bread

Ulster is the northernmost province of Ireland, now split between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (a constituent country of the United Kingdom). Recipes for the Ulster Fry differ, but common ingredients are those found in a traditional fry-up breakfast (sausages, bacon, egg, mushroom, tomato and black or white pudding), plus potato farls and soda bread. Soda bread gets its name from the use of baking soda, otherwise known as sodium bicarbonate, as the leavening agent.

In case you're wondering about the 'Eden' connection here, it's the name of a residential area of the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Answer: Steaming

New England brown bread gets its colour from the mix of flours used to make it, which can include cornmeal, wheat and rye. It is a sweetened bread so it also tends to include molasses which add to the dark colour of the loaf. The steaming process usually takes a couple of hours.

New England is the region of the US that includes the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The people of the town called Eden in Vermont have therefore probably steamed and eaten New England brown bread...

Answer: Bread roll

'Cornish splits' are sweetened, yeast-leavened bread rolls. An original Cornish cream tea consisted of one (or more) of these rolls, split open (hence the name) and filled with clotted cream and jam. By contrast the scone used in the modern recipe is usually cut completely in half with the jam and cream being placed on top of each piece.

The Eden Project is a major tourist attraction which features thousands of plant species from around the world, all housed in a series of large bio domes built over the site of a former clay pit.

Answer: Chorleywood

It is estimated that approximately 80% of commercially produced bread in the United Kingdom is made using the Chorleywood bread process (CBP). CBP was particularly important in breaking British reliance on American wheat imports for bread production. This is because British wheat historically tended to be low-protein, and therfore resulted in poor quality bread when using the previously available methods.

Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring are also Hertfordshire towns. The biblical Garden of Eden is said to have had four rivers while Chorleywood is in a local government district called Three Rivers. (Remember, I did admit some of the links to 'Eden' were a bit tenuous...)

Answer: Bulgaria

'Bird of Paradise Bread' is a yeast-leavened loaf that can be easily distinguished by its colourful toppings. The bread itself includes yoghurt and sheep's milk cheese (such as bryndza or feta), while the topping is usually made from kashkaval cheese. Kashkaval is a yellow sheep's milk cheese often considered to have a similar taste to cheddar.

Actual birds called birds-of-paradise tend to be native to New Guinea and Australia and are particularly showy creatures. Presumably the Bulgarian bread got the same name because of its similarly showy decoration.

Answer: Sourdough

The key difference between sourdough bread and other types of yeast-leavened bread is the use of a sourdough 'starter' to provide the required yeast. The starter is a yeast culture which can be kept almost indefinitely, as long as it is regularly replenished by adding flour and water into the mixture to keep the yeast alive. This feeding process quickly replaces any parts of the starter that have been used for making sourdough bread.

The sourdough baking technique was brought to California because of the Gold Rush and is now a well-known part of the culture, particularly in San Francisco. The mascot of the San Francisco 49ers American football team is a gold prospector named 'Sourdough Sam'.

Answer: Pita

Pita (or pitta) bread is a leavened flatbread that originates from the Middle East, eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans area of Europe. They are cooked at a high temperature (about 230 °C) which causes the dough to 'puff up'. Although they quickly deflate once out of the oven they can be easily opened back out and stuffed. In Turkey, for example, pitas are often used to serve kebabs.

Anadama bread is a cornmeal based bread of New England, Bing is a Chinese flatbread and Bublik is a sweet Polish wheat bread.