April 5, 2015 - 8:55pm
two different rye flours
up till now I have used rye meal flour (right one in photo) the only one available to me locally. Now I find a little bulk store "Indian Spice Traders" it is called and it stocks lots of ingredients for the local indian population stocks rye flour. (left one in photo). How would you classify them? dark? light? ........?
When I adapted my white starter to rye, I used the coarse one but it really doesn't rise much so it is hard to judge if it is active, certainly not lots of bubbles, just a small increase in volume. It sits in the fridge quietly doin not much but does work when refreshed and used to build levain of whole wheat or white flour. Going forward, is it better to use one like this or the finer one or maybe a bit of each.
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It looks like light rye but the easiest thing would be to ask them to show you the bulk bag it comes in.
will rise if fed food that creates a rye matrix or within the first 8 hours after feeding fresh flour. I tend to judge my rye starter more on side jar bubbles, aroma, taste and time spent fermenting and that is influenced by the size of culture to fresh flour and amount of water and the temperatures involved.
Comparing rye starters to wheat starters there are obvious differences. I like that my rye starter never rises out of it's jar and rarely rises much in the fridge. It behaves itself. :) Wheat will make stronger gluten bonds every time and always rise higher. Relax, you're observations are right on target.
Rye stiffens up considerably in the fridge and any protein bonds or anything resembling gluten formation prefers to crack and let gas escape than to stretch and rise. Make sure it has a tasty level of sour before feeding it more flour (which ever you choose) and it should stay on track. Feed it enough flour to return the taste to wet flour, let it ferment partially before chilling. If you want to see some rise, add some of the finer rye flour or a small % of wheat into the food flour. Rising (as a starter) is only part of the whole picture and not so important if the culture meets other criteria. Don't expect rising after 8 hours of heavy fermentation, the matrix tends to fall apart but aroma and tastes should tell you it is full of yeast and tasty bacteria.
The better food is the coarse rye meal and contains plenty of food for the culture diversity. The finer rye is "white rye flour" or perhaps "light" and has had a good deal of bran sifted out. (check the fibre content and compare) It tends to ferment slightly slower than the whole rye flour or rye meal if compared. The fine white rye flour will set up a stronger protein matrix for more rise (although still much less when compared to wheat) and a mixture of both would be good for loaf volume. For feeding and maintaining starter cultures, the meal is the better food. There is whole rye flour that lies between these two samples. Fine, slightly darker yet contains no chunks of grain endosperm.
I have not done much with rye yet except adding maybe 10% to final dough, so much to learn. you have clarified a lot with your comments. I will add rye breads to my to do list as I am feeling more confident about working with sd.