European Sourdough Rye Breads

I am working my way through Stan Ginsberg's "The Rye Baker". Many if not most recipes are done in a steam environment. I'm wondering if I can avoid the hot water pan in the oven by using the Dutch Oven method of steam retention. I've used that method successfully for wheat breads.

short answer -- yes

long answer -- I don't own the book, but I have made many recipes from The Rye Baker site and from descriptions of book formulae people have posted on this site and my dutch oven has worked just fine.

Rob

It's a great book. I used to use a dutch oven, it worked fine (removing the lid at the end of the steaming period). But I found that I generally got the same or better results using 3 oven racks in our vented GE electric oven:

Lowest rack has the steam pan, which is also the bottom of a broiler pan. It sits on the bottom notch for the oven.
Middle rack has an intact baking stone - that's where the bread goes
Upper rack has a baking stone which had been broken (accidently) into two pieces; I arrange the gap between the pieces so that the oven light can shine through the gap.

I spritz the loaves with a spray bottle after scoring
I load the bread on the middle rack
I pour boiling water into the steam pan
At 5 minutes in, I open the oven and spritz the breads with the spray bottle. I think this compensates for the oven venting, which is fixed open
When the formula says to stop steaming (usually 10-15 minutes in), I remove the steam pan (and typically reduce the oven temp per the formula)

It sounds like a hassle but it's easier than dealing with a dutch oven, especially when baking two loaves at once.

Here are some ryes, and a challah (which IIRC doesn't get steamed) https://photos.app.goo.gl/TwHBXN1AdVrddykGA