Rye Kernels
Sourdough Culture
Water
Set aside 1 cup of flour for later
Let sit overnight – 12–18 hours or longer. Remoisten the dishcloth if you can as it will dry out. The dough will ferment and become quite sour, pleasantly so.
Remix the dough – stirring in any dried top portion.
Take a large loaf pan and line it with parchment paper, if you have it. If not oil the pan with olive oil – that should help so the dough won’t stick. Somehow someway get the dough out of the bowl and place it in the loaf pan. Smooth the top with a wet rubber spatula. Let it rise in the same type of oven as above for about an hour – or more. No need for the dishcloth this time as the dough would (hopefully) rise up to it. Do have the pan of water again.
When you are satisfied with the “rising” take the loaf pan with the dough out of the oven. It should have risen somewhat – with the addition of the extra flour and water stimulating the growth of the culture.
With a sharp knife gently score the top of the loaf several times – crosswise not lengthwise. This gives the loaf a place to expand – when it rises further in the hot oven.
Bake the loaf for 60–70 minutes or more. Test it for doneness by inserting a long stiff thin wire. It should come out clean.
Remove the loaf from the pan – somehow someway.
Let the bread cool for at least an hour before cutting it.
Do not expect fluffy. It will not happen. This is solid, sturdy, nutritious bread that is a “main course”. It does not play a subordinate role as just a container for a sandwich.
Enjoy it by itself, or with hummus, cashew cheese, peanut butter, avocado, or, for lacto–vegetarians, cheese.
Q. Dear Dr Airola:
Have you eaten the sourdough rye bread made by the recipe
you have in your books? My wife fixed it and it was
terrible – very tacky on adding the last cup of flour.
The surface after baking was very hard – our dog thought
it was a bone and licked it! The taste was extremely
sour, totally unpalatable. The whole house smelled sour.
We followed your instructions including the
culture preparation. Very disapppointing. Any comments?
– C.S., Long Beach CA
A. What can I say, except that your dog apprently has good taste! If you have never seen or eaten the genuine European–type of black sour rye bread I can understand your reaction. The American idea of sourdough rye is a fluffy white loaf made from 80% white flour and 20% white rye flour, which is raised mostly with yeast, and a minimum of sourdough culture to give the bread just a slight sour taste. The genuine European sourdough rye, as it is made in England, Russia, Germany, Poland, and Baltic and Balkan countries, is heavy, black, moist but compact, with a hard crust, and so aromatic that the first thing you smell when you enter a Russian peasant’s house is the heavy penetrating sour aroma of the bread. The taste of this bread is also very heavy and extremely sour. In Finland, such bread is baked in large quantities and is hung to dry from the ceiling, then eaten over a period of several months. It becomes so hard (talk about dog bones!!) that it must be broken into pieces with a hammer and soaked before it can be eaten. Obviously, accustomed as you are the the fluffy, airy, sponge–like American idea of bread, the heavy, smelly, hard loaf you concocted didn’t seem very palatable to you.
Now, what can you do to Americanize the black sourdough rye bread and make it more appetizing to your palate? You can use some baker’s yeast together with sourdough culture, which will make the bread fluffier, as well as reduce its sour taste. Most likely your bread didn’t rise enough and became too flat and hard. You must knead twice as my recipe specifies, and also let it stand the second time until it is risen high, before you put the loaf into the oven. Adding some salt to the dough will inhibit the sourdough bacteria somewhat and result in a milder taste. As for myself, I wish I had been there when you threw your hard, heavy, sourdough loaf to your dog. I would have probably loved it as much as he did, and may have beaten him to it.
Worldwide studies show that all people known for their excellent health always use some kind of grain as a staple in their diet. In Russia, it is buckwheat and millet. In Mexico, it is corn and beans. In China, it is rice and millet. In the Middle East, it is sesame seeds. In East Europe, it is barley. In Scotland, it is oats. Grains, seeds, and nuts are the most important and most potent foods for man’s health. Their nutritional value is unsurpassed by any other food. Eaten mostly raw and sprouted, but also cooked, they contain all the important nutrients essential for human growth, maintenance of health, and prevention of disease in the most perfect combination and balance. In addition, they contain the secret of life itself – the germ – the reproductive power that assures the perpetuation of the species. This reproductive power is of extreme importance for the life of man, his health, and his own reproductive capacity.
All seeds and grains are useful and beneficial, but some grains are more so than others. Millet and buckwheat contain complete proteins of high quality, which most other grains do not contain. Rye, wheat, rice and corn do not contain all the essential amino acids which form hig quality proteins. Furthermore, many vital nutrients in grains, such as minerals, and particularily the trace minerals manganese, iron, copper, molybdenum, and zine, are not well utilized by the body as they are “locked in” by phytin, which the human digestive system is unable to break down.
Rye has been a staple in the Finnish diet for centuries, mostly in the form of rye bread. But Finns eat mostly sour rye bread, which is one of the secrets of their exceptional health. According to Dr. Johannes Kuhl, the famous German expert on soured (lactic acid) foods, the fermentation of grains makes many nutrients more easily available for assimilation in the intestinal tract. During the natural souring process in making a sour–dough bread, the phytin is broken down and valuable minerals and trace elements are released. Also, during the fermentation, due to the enzymatic action on the grain, valuable lactic acid develops – an extremely beneficial health–promoting and disease–preventing factor, as demonstrated by Dr. Kuhl and others in actual studies.
Sour rye bread is also extremely beneficial for the health of the digestive and eliminative organs. Being a “predigested” food, it is easily digested and utilized even by weak organs. It is also an anti–constipation food – while most other grains are just the opposite! And, chronic constipation is one of the prime causes of most degenerative diseases, as well as of premature aging.
For much more information about rye see the web site Rye and Health.