My Rye Starter Problem: Jewish Deli Rye
I have determined to bake the Deli Rye from George Greenstein's book, Secrets of a Jewish Baker. I grew up during the 1950's, in a very Jewish neighborhood of Cleveland. There were, at various times, as many as five Jewish bakeries on a three block section of Coventry Road, each with rye bread better than the other. That's the taste I am looking for.
I started by making a sort of slurry from spring water and organic rye flour from the local health food store. The flour came out of a bulk bin and was unmarked as to what type it was, light, medium, or dark. I used no commercial yeast.
It came to life the first day. It bubbled, foamed, and smelled great. On the third day, after two feedings, it overflowed the jar it was in. I transferred it to a large bowl, fed it the remainder of the health food store flour, and proceeded to increase the flour ratio in order to have a more dough-like consistency following the example in the Greenstein book. I used a sack of Bob's Red Mill organic Dark Rye.
The starter still appears to be alive. It smells sour and delicious and tastes nice and sour. There are bubbles. However, it is doing very little rising. There is no way it could raise a loaf unaided by commercial yeast.
Do I have a problem or should I continue with this starter? I'm tempted to bake a loaf as soon as I can buy some caraway seeds.
Does anyone with more experience in rye baking have an opinion?