April 19, 2008 - 8:14am
Rye meal and rye chops
I just baked Hamelman's 40% Caraway rye bread with great results and want to try his rye chops and rye meal recipes. He does not show any pictures of either chops or meal in his book "Bread". Anybody know of any pictures on the internet showing these two products? Hamelman lists rye meal as "a coarse meal rather than flour" which does give me some good information. Rye chops he goes on to say is the rye berry "chopped". OK, I could give these two descriptions a try in my grinder however, would appreciate a post from anybody that has experience grinding these two products.
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Rye chops is not ground in a grinder, wheel, or roller; it is chopped with knives. It is basically rye berries chopped into 3-10 pieces, so if you used a very sharp paring knife to chop a rye berry into 5 sections under a magnifying glass that is what it looks like.
Rye berries are milled (ground) rather than chopped. They still feel like whole rye berries but are roughly circular with a diameter of about 1/3 millimeter.
I personally can't order from Bob's Red Mill any more due to the nut contamination issue at their new facility, but last I looked BRM's Rye Chops and Pumpernickel products should correspond to Hamelman's chops and meal respectively.
Note that BRM's Pumpernickel is entirely different from King Arthur's product of the same name. KA Pumpernickel is a whole rye flour one step coarser than their Whole Dark Rye. That is a useful flour (but sadly also nut contaminated), but I think that BRM's is closer to the German definition.
sPh
You answered my question and I appreciate the information you gave me. I'll order up some product from BRM. Thanks!
I have to say it is a little disheartening when the top three results for "rye chops" on Google point to threads on The Fresh Loaf that you have already participated in. It is very hard to find, and then I have the problem that most small mills that might have it also grind nuts taking them out of the running for me (but not others). It does exist in the US because these guys make it: http://www.grainmillers.com/Rye.aspz , but where to get it in qtys less than 10,000 lbs?
I have found that most of the sources in the Appendix to Leader's _Bread Alone_ still exist and now have web sites, and they tend to make the less-common products.
sPh
I've had no luck finding a local source for rye chops, either. What I have done, on a couple of occasions, is buy rolled rye (looks a lot like rolled oats) and use the steel blade in my food processor to grind it down to more of a meal texture. Granted, it isn't the same thing, but it's closer than anything else I could locate. I think I found the rolled rye at Wild Oats or Whole Foods, in the bulk section.
PMcCool
Hi I have suffered from the same confusion too. I can get whole grain rye flour which is on the coarse side, I can also get rye meal as well as whole rye grains. But not rye chops. Between those 3 types of rye products I have managed to produce some great breads. Making Vollkornbrot is a good challenge and I have made it using a combination of rye meal AND whole grain rye flour in the sourdough phase of the formula, came out out good. I also tried making it with ONLY the rye meal and the whole rye grains and NO flour at all. That also came out very yummy, however bake time was insanely long and even still there was an air streak along the top portion of the loaf that I just couldn't seem to get rid of. I find that with the Voll' timing is bloody CRITICAL.
Will this help you? Probably not, but I feel a lot better now that I have gotten it offen my chest.
-David Aplin
www.cliffsidebakery.blogspot.com
David....you have given me some needed encouragement to try Vollkornbrot. Did not know timing was critical....ok, on to another experiment
I found this old thread while hunting for rye chops and have found them sold by Old Mill of Guilford; ordered five pounds for the ridiculous shipping of $15.40 added to the totally reasonable price of $2.30/lb.
If anyone would like to share them, I'll gladly send some on. They won't keep long enough for me to use them up. Yes, I know I can freeze them but my freezer space is laughably small.
Linda
Hi Linda,
Just a quick note as I need to get to bed with an early rise for an out of town trip tomorrow. I would love to buy a couple of pounds of rye chops from you. I don't know how we would ever exchange address info. to accomplish this but let's give it some thought or maybe someone can give us some suggestions.
John
The Whole Grains Council website is a great resource to answer these very questions (and they provide good visuals as well)... Whole Grains 101: Types of Rye
Tony