"Perfect" rye bread can be made only with sourdough, something to keep in mind as you go forward.  Do not let sourdough intimidate you, like anything else it is easy once you do it.

Jeff

All the wild yeast you need is in the flour you use to create the sourdough culture.  No need to worry about how to "catch" wild yeast.

Once you taste a good sourdough rye, you'll make it a point to feed your levain regularly just for the joy of the bread.

Hi Genie,

Don't be scared because sourdough cultures are not hard to keep at all. I don't have a big family to feed so I bake bread once a week for me and my boyfriend, and that's enough to keep an active culture in the fridge and have leftovers to experiment new stuff (see: the perfect flour tortilla is sourdough )

I had troubles a couple of times stating a starter (whey and grape skins) but you really need nothing but flour and water to "capture" the yeast. The pinapple juice technique came out perfect at first attempt. You only have to feed it once or twice a day for the first 5 days and then you can feed it once every 10 days if you keep it in the fridge.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/233

Also, rye flour ans water worked great the first (and only) time I tried (my cultures are still the first I made and I even moved them from CT to IL by car, pretty resistent...).

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/13/raising-a-starter/

You will be suprprised on how easy and fun it is to work with sourdough.

Let us know if you try, and if you have troubles during the process you can still post them here and had somebody to help you!

Cheers,

Matilda

http://sickofood.blogspot.com/