The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Best over all Rye flavor & Source

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Best over all Rye flavor & Source

I'm hoping Norm or Mike or David or anyone located here in the US who knows rye flours will respond to this question. I'm sure there are many others who like rye breads but for the most part our only option is the supermarket which carries Hodgson Mills Whole grain Rye. Yes there are some local expensive health food stores that carry other types but at boutique prices. King Arthur has a selection but again at unreasonable pricing if you do a lot of baking. So the questions are.

  1. Should I be looking for a good quality Medium rye flour for all around use? That is, Jewish rye and the various rye breads in Hamelmans and Reinharts books. We have extensive threads on the subject but I think it would be good to once and for all have a definitive answer to the question.

  2. Do you have an opinion on a particular national brand or product that is either shipped or distributed on a wide scale? I would like to buy a 25 Lb bags of the best tasting rye on Earth. If I'm going to pay shipping, let's go all out! OK if the only way is 50#'s I would do that but I'd rather not have to freeze it for storage. Guisito's is not an option here.

  3. Do you have an opinion on Organic Rye being better tasting? I don't usually buy Organic flours thinking the actual difference is minimal. I know some are avid "Organic Only" advocates and I respect that.

The point to this question is to try and identify the best tasting and best value flour for the job. In my own case I have found that the 5# bags of Harvest King at $2.35 produces as good or better tasting and looking loaves as flour costing 3 times that amount. I'm not trying to be cheap at the expense of quality. It's just in this particular area of food product there seems to be a lot of value placed on marketing.

Eric

fleur-de-liz's picture
fleur-de-liz

Eric:

After also being frustrated by the lack of local availability of rye flour and the exorbitant price of shipping flours, I purchased a Nutrimill grain mill about a year ago to grind whole grains, particularly rye.  If you haven't tasted fresh ground rye it is so incredibly fuller tasting than packaged rye.   I  store the whole rye berries in a large container with gamma lid in my garage and grind when I need the flour.  My last purchase in early of September for 25# of organic rye berries was $10.82 from my local health food store.

Just another option you might consider,

Liz

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Hi Liz,

You know I hadn't thought of that as an option. If there isn't a good pre milled flour that will do the job I'll have to look at that. You really think it has a better fuller flavor?

Eric 

fleur-de-liz's picture
fleur-de-liz

Eric:

I do think home milled rye is much more flavorful than the packaged rye (and I've tried quite a few -- King Arthur pumpernickel and medium ryes, Heartland Mill rye, Bob's rye, Arrowhead Mills and Giusto's).  The taste is so much better. While home milled whole wheat is really good, I think the flavor difference is particularly noticeable with rye.  Perhaps other home millers will respond about the virtues of home milled rye.

A bonus in home milling is that you can store the whole grains for quite some time without fear of becoming rancid.  As I mentioned, I purchase 25# sacks or organic rye berries, the price is incredibly low, and I have them on hand  whenever I need them.  My local health food store special orders whole grains for me and I can pick them up a few days later. And, no outrageous shipping fees. Of course, there is the initial investment of a mill, but I love the convenience and freshness of milling my own grains.

Liz

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Do you ever sift the rye flour to arrive at a medium rye flour?

Eric 

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Bill,

We haven't heard from you in a while, I hope you see this post.

As you can gather I'm trying to find a great rye flour for general use. Can you add anything to this discussion about home milling? What would I have to do to arrive at a Medium Rye?

Hope you are well.

Eric 

fleur-de-liz's picture
fleur-de-liz

Eric:

I haven't sifted rye, but I have experimented with sifting whole wheat.  I followed the discussions on flour sifting of Bill Wraith and Proth a while back.  My own attempts have been far more pedestrian.  My process has evolved into the following: I grind the whole wheat kernels on a coarse grind, then sift that flour through a fine mesh sieve (I use tamis of varying degrees of fineness), and the remaining sifted flour I re-grind on a fine  setting.  What comes out is somewhat akin to a high extraction flour like Golden Buffalo from Heartland.  I am sure the same process could be done with rye berries.

Hope this helps.

Liz

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

let me ask you a dum question where are you???

hay i can get white rye here in 100 pound bags if anyone here localy would be willing to share we could split the cost.  i am not sure how much the shipping cost yould be but since i have an UPS account it could not be that much and the cost of the flour and shipping has got to cheaper than KA

hell could even get a bag of clear and share that as well.  i still have connections with local bakery supply houses.

am going next week to get ready for the holadays

see blog post

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Hi, Eric.

I can't offer an authoritative answer to your very good questions. I have experience with only a few rye flours - KAF white rye, medium rye and pumpernickel flour and Giusto's whole rye flour. Oh, I also used a bag of Bob's Red Mill "Dark Rye" once. As I recall, it was a medium grind.

As you know, traditional Jewish sour rye uses white rye. I've made Hamelman's 40% rye, as have you, with medium rye. Before I got my first bag of white rye from KAF, I had made several ryes from Greenstein and from Reinhart with whole rye.

I have yet to make a rye bread I didn't like. I've not found fault with any of the rye flours I've used. I do find I like a bit more rye flavor than I get from white rye, but, you know, the Greenstein rye or Norm's Sour Rye made with white rye ain't bad bread.

*sigh* But, now, Liz has just about talked me into getting a grain mill and grinding my own rye flour.


David

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

grind your own flour you purest ;)

remember the abbot and costello bit about how all the workers would be out of a job and there familys would go hungry just because costello would not eat musterd.

think of all thouse poor grain workers that are going to be out of work hundreds of people working all day to feed their families just to mak your flour and your not going to buy it so now there all out of work because you wount buy their flour  and the bag makers and the people that print the names on the bags.  and what about the delevery people and the stores that sell the flour all gone and hungry just because you are going to grind your own flour.  ;)  :) 

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Stop it, Norm! You're breaking my heart!

I want you should think of all those workers in the Nutrimill factory and their families. They are all hoping enough people decide to grind their own flour that they will still have jobs, be able to pay off their cars, their homes, the grocery bill, diapers for the baby, medicine for grandma.

Think of the shipping carton factory workers, the UPS drivers, the people who make those cool hand-held scanners, the workers in the factories that make tires for the UPS trucks, ...

You want I should put all these poor people out of work because I'm too lazy to grind my own flour?


David

nbicomputers's picture
nbicomputers

you know  thats what i like about you...

you get it|!!!  :)

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

I grind my own rye and I think it can't be beat. I sift it sometimes, nothing scientific mind you, just guessing what a medium rye would be and it's worked fine. The taste is very fresh and store bought can't compare in my humble opinion. Fresh whole grain flour is why I bought my Nutrimill because, unless it's dated, you never know how long the flour has been sitting on the shelf. I grind about 5lbs. at a time, use what I need and put the rest in the fridge or freezer.  

 

Hope this helps.                                                                  weavershouse

beeman1's picture
beeman1

I also went over to milling my own. The taste is much better. There is a difference. I haven't tried sifting.

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Has anyone used the milling attachment for the DLX Assistant? I think it's the same company as the stand alone device. I tend to not buy multi function attachments thinking the stand alone is designed with the intent of a single type of operation.

Eric