I really like rye bread, but I've had a hard time finding a recipe for it. Indeed, I've had a really hard time finding rye flour for that matter.
Some time ago I managed to find rye flour at "Natural Grocers" and tried making rye bread in the bread machine. It was a flop. So when I found a recipe for German army rye bread on The Joy of Field Rations blog, I had to give it a try.
The recipe posted there had two varieties of rye bread. One was a sourdough bread, and the other a soda bread. As I don't have the patience for sourdough, I went with the soda bread. I like soda bread anyway, and occasionally make it with self rising flour. It's easy to make.
As I lack a Kochgeschirr I just used the Dutch Oven. It worked fine, and the bread tasted great. I didn't mix the flour with white flour at all, I just used rye flour.
As is probably evident, mine load was a bit small, and as I probably slightly overcooked it (I was cooking stuffed peppers at the same time), so it does not have the ideal appearance. Dutch ovens cook very hot on the cast iron, and therefore the bottom of the bread was very crisp, making it a bit hard to cut. And frankly I used a bit more flour than the recipe calls for, as the dough appeared a bit too moist at first. These problems are easily remedied, and as the bread tasted good, I'll make it again, although next time I'll double the size of the loaf. Another recipe worth trying.
It's funny that you don't really see that many recipes for rye bread. I don't know why. Perhaps my taste here is just a minority taste, and most people don't like it much, although I've seen it in restaurants. You'd think that somebody would offer it as a bread machine recipe, but nobody does. I wonder if it was once more common than it is now, or if it's always been sort of a second choice in the US?
Rye itself is a grass, just like wheat, and it does see a variety of uses. Rye whiskey is one. I guess at one time Rye Whiskey was regarded as being amongst the very best, and it was quite popular in the US prior to Prohibition. During Prohibition it came to be associated with being "bad," ironically because it had been so good. Bootleggers trying to vend their product would attach the tag "Rye" to it hopes of fooling the customer. That meant that by the end of Prohibition it had a bad reputation, so much so that Bill Mauldin had Joe reporting to Willie that his mother would be pleased as he'd "given up rye whiskey and cheap ciagars." Apparently, however, Rye Whiskey is making a comeback, or so I've read. I also believe that Scotch and Irish whiskeys may be rye whiskeys. Some beer is also brewed with rye.
And then there's rye bread.
Rye itself is a grass, just like wheat, and it does see a variety of uses. Rye whiskey is one. I guess at one time Rye Whiskey was regarded as being amongst the very best, and it was quite popular in the US prior to Prohibition. During Prohibition it came to be associated with being "bad," ironically because it had been so good. Bootleggers trying to vend their product would attach the tag "Rye" to it hopes of fooling the customer. That meant that by the end of Prohibition it had a bad reputation, so much so that Bill Mauldin had Joe reporting to Willie that his mother would be pleased as he'd "given up rye whiskey and cheap ciagars." Apparently, however, Rye Whiskey is making a comeback, or so I've read. I also believe that Scotch and Irish whiskeys may be rye whiskeys. Some beer is also brewed with rye.
And then there's rye bread.
4 comments:
Rye flour doesn't have as much gluten as wheat flour, so you need to use some wheat flour to get the bread to rise otherwise you end up with a brick of bread. Rye also has so much starch that it will always be sort of sticky when you mix it, and over-mixing or over-kneading the dough makes it even more brick-like.
So, try using more wheat flour than rye flour, don't add more flour if it looks too wet or sticky (baking powder needs moisture to work right anyway), and you should get a decent loaf.
And, if you want to make the sourdough version, you can always add a little yeast (a tsp or two) to the dough in the first step, let it rise an hour or so, then do the second step in the recipe. Sourdough is really only a slower, wilder version of yeast with some fermentation thrown in.
I've never had a problem with rye, but it can be a pretty bad weed in wheat fields. But, if I actually grew some winter rye, I'm not sure there is anywhere local to sell it, which might be one of the reasons it isn't as commonly grown anymore.
It does make decent hay and good forage from what I've read though.
I didn't know that rye could be invasive in wheat, but I could see where it could be. I wonder if they generally avoid growing it in the same regions, or at least in close proximity?
The rye problem I've seen in wheat fields is probably because they used uncleaned bin-run wheat to plant those fields for grazing.
There isn't a herbicide that can be used to kill the winter rye in wheat, so the rye grows to maturity, some of it is thrown out of the back of the combine at wheat harvest, and is spread all over the field by the combine and other equipment. Once it is in the field, rotating to a summer crop (or maybe something like RR winter canola) is just about the only way to get rid of it.
But, I wouldn't really call it invasive because if you only use good clean wheat seed, you can keep it out of your fields (although I have walked all over our fields and hand-pulled isolated clumps to control it).
People don't grow much rye because there isn't really an easy way to sell it or much demand.
Back in the '30's on our farm, they grew wheat, mung beans, barley, oats, milo, corn, and cotton. Then the droughts hit, the markets dried up, and the farm programs changed everything.
I can usually grow decent wheat, and I try to grow grain sorghum (or milo) if it rains in the summer. If I grew mung beans, barley, or oats, I doubt if I could sell them at any price.
Anyone thinking about growing rye would have similar problems selling it.
Well, your certainly turned out better than mine!
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