June 13, 2020 - 1:06am
Rye starter from white
Hi,
I’ve got a white starter up and running. It seems healthy and making good bread from it. I want to start a rye or wholemeal starter for a bit of variety. Because I like the idea of everything coming from the same starter I was wondering if I can use my white starter to start a rye one? I was thinking of just splitting some of my white starter off and start feeding it with 100% rye.
I was wondering if anyone has tried this / has any thoughts on it? Would it give me a ‘true’ rye starter or is it still just the same white starter being fed differently. I was thinking I might feed it once a day for a week with rye to ‘convert’ it.
Thanks
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Hey SD! Although I did the opposite of what you are asking, I initially started with a rye starter a few years ago, and have subsequently 'built' a straight AP flour one and a mix of AP/WW/Rye and a straight WW one and use each depending on what I'm baking or if there is a new recipe I want to try out. After a few consecutive feeds, they pretty much 'convert' to whatever you are feeding them, at least that has been my experience. My starters are happy, active and dependable. As far as it being a 'true' starter that way, I'm not sure I would worry too much about that aspect of it. I think you would have good luck with a week's worth of feeds in order to convert it. Good luck and let everyone know how you get on!
Great, thanks for the response, that’s really good to know! Just need to get some rye flour now and start it going!
Reinhart's Crust and Crumb does a quick conversion to a rye starter. Basically, he combines 4 oz barm starter with 2.25 oz rye flour and 1/2 cup cool water. Let it set about 5 hours and refrigerate overnight.
I've used this in place of the starter called for in other rye recipes.
And while the hydration level isn't super high in his recipes, his Naturally Leavened Rye Bread made from it is rather wonderful and, if you follow his slow build schedule, yields a strong rye bread with a nice sour punch.