Rye Chops: Making My Own

Toast
Anonymous on 2 Apr 2009 at 11:45

I want to try some of Hamelman's recipes that call for rye chops. I found one web site that said you could make your own by putting whole rye through a corona-type grinder. Any thoughts on if this would work?

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/ryetypes.html

--Pamela

That's Mike Avery's site - he's a quite knowledable TFL member as well as a sourdough expert.

Here's an interesting [url=http://www.grainmillers.com/Rye.aspz][u]photo[/u][/url] of rye chops with some background info.

I've been planning to make them as well, using the grinder for my KA mixer. I just need to get my weekends a bit more organized.

Perhaps some of the milling experts here may have some suggestions.  Or cautions.

Thanks, Lindy, for the great picture of rye chops. Yes, I was going to use my KA meat grinder as well. I guess I could try both disks and see which one yields chops that most resemble the picture.

--Pamela

I cannot produce rye "chops" with my mill.  Chops really require that the grain be sheared, not ground, and I can only grind.

However, I have produced a very good approximation of rye chops by setting my mill to a fairly wide setting which produces a type of cracked rye.  I don't know about the KA meat grinder, but I'm sure there is a way to approximate chops by using a vey wide setting.

Hope this helps

for the tip about the mill setting, Proth5.  I do have a grain mill for my KA mixer and will experiment with the settings this weekend.  

I've tried a number of methods to produce these chops today and only created a lot of mess.

KA Meat Grinder with large disk--ground some OK but let other through whole and then jammed up. I was going to try with the finer disk, but I can't get it unscrewed--will have to wait until Jim gets home.

Blender: no jamming problem, but some were chopped and others were whole.

Stick Blender: made a big mess--flying debris everywhere.

Small electric spice grinder: same results as blender.

I could try the coffee grinder, but doubt that is going to get me any farther excepting I'll have more mess

What if I soak the grain for a while then ground them with the meat grinder?

--Pamela

Xaipete,

I haven't found rye chops locally, so I have run rye flakes (found some at Wild Oats) through the food processor, using the steel blade.  It isn't the same as rye chops, but it does have a nubby texture that is closer to the chops than it is to a meal.  If you have access to the flaked rye, you might want to see if it gives you an acceptable result.

Paul

Thanks, Paul. I might try that. I found a place to order them on line. I'm still thinking about whether I want to do that or not.

--Pamela

Pamela, I had pretty much the same issues as you. I bought whole rye berries, because that's all I had available, other than rolled rye flakes and rye flour. The food processor did nothing. The blender didn't do much. I didn't put them through a grinder, and my spice grinder didn't even grind spices very well. I finally dumped them a handfull at a time on a cutting board and chopped them coarsely with a thin, sharp, santuko-like knife (a sharp chef's knife would probably do as well). That worked the best for me. Good luck :-)

I'll try knife-ing them outside today! I'm really trying to cut down on the time I'm spending sweeping the floor these days! Isn't there some kind of double nice device (Italian, I think) that you use in a wooden bowl? Maybe I saw Mario B. use something like that on FoodTV.

--Pamela

That's it, a mezzaluna! I couldn't remember what it was called only what it looked liked. I wonder if it would chop these berries?

--Pamela

I bet it would be just as easy as a chef's knife, but quicker. Especially with one that has at least two blades. The bowl-shaped depression would help to keep things corralled. But then, if you have to mail-order something, why not just order the chops?

I'm making Leader's Meteils au Bleu tomorrow--yum! and no chops required. I'll work on the chops tomorrow too for a bake on Monday. Worse thing about buying the mezzaluna and depression bowl is not ordering or even the cost, but where I would keep it. I've got so much stuff already.

I'll report on my chop progress tomorrow!

--Pamela

I just tried rye berries in a Braun electric chopper for the first time.  My results look exactly like the photo from the link posted above.  I sifted out the finer stuff to use as rye meal.  The left over looked like the photo--lots of small pieces and a few almost intact.

Is this electric chopper a hand held blender? I tried that but everything flew all over the kitchen. I can try again today, but outside!

--Pamela

It's actually a Cuisinart Mini-Mate Plus chopper/grinder.  It's not hand-held.  You fill a plastic cylinder with a small amount (like two T) of whatever you're chopping/grinding and hit the pulse button a few times.  It's certainly not for the every day baker, but it wasn't too much effort for the few hundred grams of meal/chops that I needed.

 

Mike

I tried it in that too but didn't think the results looked like the picture. Did you put the black or white side of the grind down? And, what speed and how much did you put in there?

Thanks,

--Pamela

Per the instructions for harder grains, I used the dull side of the blade and the hi-speed button.  I only did two scoops (coffee scoop) at a time, which I guess is the equivalent of about two tablespoons.  I pulsed for a few seconds 4-5 times, resting for a few seconds between each pulse.  This allows the heavier pieces to settle a little so they're easier to chop the next pulse.  I used a regular kitchen sieve to separate the finer stuff from the "chops".