If you love eating Albanian Ravani or heavy cakes then you will love Albanian Kulaç. This Albanian soda bread has the most amazing smell while cooking, it smells like walking into a bakers, the smell of cakes and breads. When you cut through the soda bread the texture is firm and dense, but surprisingly unlike the smell suggested, it is not sweet in taste.
Albanian Kulaç is not made as much as it use to be (except in my home) as bread is now available for just a few lek in many little bakeries, shops and markets all around the Albanian villages. This has eliminated the need for the quickness that the Soda bread use to bring.
There is a history to Albanian Kulaç in some parts of Albania and Kosovo as it use to be part of the wedding tradition, and still is in some areas. It would be made the day before and eaten the day after the wedding by the bride and groom. Making the Albanian soda bread is said to bring prosperity and peace of mind to the soon to be spouses.
A few other interesting things that I’ve read about this tradition is that it is made in silence to ensure a non nagging and worrying wife, a close male relative will watch wearing three types of hats as it is believed it will help the couple conceive a male on their wedding night. Coins are sometimes baked into the bread and before eating the soda bread the married couple snap the bread in half, the one with the biggest half will be the one loved the most.
What I do know for sure is that although this Albanian soda bread is high in calories, it tastes really good!
Source: My Albanian Food
