Peter H.M. Brooks wrote:

I'm curious as to why rye bread is sold cut into very thin slices in
packets. Other bread is sold in loaves and variations on loaves.

Is this just an historical accident or is there some reason for it?

I think it's because a little of that type of rye (rye built from
sourdough, a natural yeast culture) goes a long way.

Is it as easy to cook loaves of rye bread at home, or is there some
difficulty with it?

If you have experience in sourdough bread-making it's not incredibly
difficult to make a decent loaf of straight rye, although it will take
some practice and may taste very different from the slices sold in
packets.

Is it possible to make lighter rye bread than the fairly dense stuff you
find in the packets?

There are several baking/bread-specific groups that could advise you in
detail; the pumperknickel police patrol rec.food.baking :-), so
alt.bread.recipes is a good place to start. I make some lightish ryes,
including a deli onion rye and a deli 'pumperknickel' (in quotes because
it's not a true sourdough.

By their nature straight rye breads are heavier than the equivalent
wheat bread. To cut a long story short, rye doesn't contain the type of
gluten that makes wheat flour rise, and it also contains gums that
interfere with the action of its gluten-equivalent. Lighter ryes are
made by adding a proportion of wheat flour to the rye; the more wheat,
the lighter the texture of the bread (assuming the baker's skill is a
constant).

regards
sarah

--
Think of it as evolution in action.

Peter H.M. Brooks wrote:

I'm curious as to why rye bread is sold cut into very thin slices in
packets. Other bread is sold in loaves and variations on loaves.

Is this just an historical accident or is there some reason for it?

I think it's because a little of that type of rye (rye built from
sourdough, a natural yeast culture) goes a long way.

Is it as easy to cook loaves of rye bread at home, or is there some
difficulty with it?

If you have experience in sourdough bread-making it's not incredibly
difficult to make a decent loaf of straight rye, although it will take
some practice and may taste very different from the slices sold in
packets.

Is it possible to make lighter rye bread than the fairly dense stuff you
find in the packets?

There are several baking/bread-specific groups that could advise you in
detail; the pumperknickel police patrol rec.food.baking :-), so
alt.bread.recipes is a good place to start. I make some lightish ryes,
including a deli onion rye and a deli 'pumperknickel' (in quotes because
it's not a true sourdough.

By their nature straight rye breads are heavier than the equivalent
wheat bread. To cut a long story short, rye doesn't contain the type of
gluten that makes wheat flour rise, and it also contains gums that
interfere with the action of its gluten-equivalent. Lighter ryes are
made by adding a proportion of wheat flour to the rye; the more wheat,
the lighter the texture of the bread (assuming the baker's skill is a
constant).

regards
sarah

--
Think of it as evolution in action.

Peter H.M. Brooks wrote:

sarah wrote:
Peter H.M. Brooks wrote:


I'm curious as to why rye bread is sold cut into very thin slices in
packets. Other bread is sold in loaves and variations on loaves.

Is this just an historical accident or is there some reason for it?


I think it's because a little of that type of rye (rye built from
sourdough, a natural yeast culture) goes a long way.

Mmm.. I suppose that the packets stop it going off or drying out
(further). I wonder how the practice started.

I don't know, but I remember my mother buying similar packets of sliced
heavy rye in Canada at least 30 years ago.

Is it as easy to cook loaves of rye bread at home, or is there some
difficulty with it?


If you have experience in sourdough bread-making it's not incredibly
difficult to make a decent loaf of straight rye, although it will take
some practice and may taste very different from the slices sold in
packets.

I've had very little. I'll look into it, but tasting different will be
no problem for me at all! I've been involved with making 'beer bread'
whilst travelling overland down Africa, and that worked quite well - and
was fairly easy.

I find sourdough easy. All you need is a starter (which is easy to
build), a little patience and a little spare time. If you want to
discuss it here, I'm happy to do so; there are several other experienced
home bakers here. Alternatively come and find a chair in
alt.bread.recipes; there's a FAQ somewhere with a good introduction to
sourdough, but I can't find it at the moment.

There are also lots of websites offering advice and instructions for
sourdough baking; Mike Avery's is a good start:

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/resources.html

Samartha's sourdough rye pages might be helpful if that's what you're
after: http://samartha.net/SD/

[-]
regards
sarah




--
Think of it as evolution in action.

In the US, that sort of rye bread is sold in specialty stores as
"Pumpernickel". Bread made from rye and wheat flour, labelled rye bread,
is sold in loaves just like regular bread. Of course, we've also got
several varieties (Jewish rye, which is light colored and weight with
caraway seeds, Deli rye which is light without caraway seeds, marble rye
which is a swirl of rye and white bread, a different loaf pumpernickel
which is dark and dense and sometimes also has caraway seeds).

toodles, gretchen

--On Sunday, May 22, 2005 7:00 AM +0200 "Peter H.M. Brooks"
wrote:

I'm curious as to why rye bread is sold cut into very thin slices in
packets. Other bread is sold in loaves and variations on loaves.

Is this just an historical accident or is there some reason for it?

Is it as easy to cook loaves of rye bread at home, or is there some
difficulty with it?

Is it possible to make lighter rye bread than the fairly dense stuff you
find in the packets?

--
"It is the mark of a civilised man, and a hallmark of his culture, that
he applies no more precision to a problem than its nature permits, or its
solution demands." - Aristotle
* TagZilla 0.057 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org

In the US, that sort of rye bread is sold in specialty stores as
"Pumpernickel". Bread made from rye and wheat flour, labelled rye bread,
is sold in loaves just like regular bread. Of course, we've also got
several varieties (Jewish rye, which is light colored and weight with
caraway seeds, Deli rye which is light without caraway seeds, marble rye
which is a swirl of rye and white bread, a different loaf pumpernickel
which is dark and dense and sometimes also has caraway seeds).

toodles, gretchen

--On Sunday, May 22, 2005 7:00 AM +0200 "Peter H.M. Brooks"
wrote:

I'm curious as to why rye bread is sold cut into very thin slices in
packets. Other bread is sold in loaves and variations on loaves.

Is this just an historical accident or is there some reason for it?

Is it as easy to cook loaves of rye bread at home, or is there some
difficulty with it?

Is it possible to make lighter rye bread than the fairly dense stuff you
find in the packets?

--
"It is the mark of a civilised man, and a hallmark of his culture, that
he applies no more precision to a problem than its nature permits, or its
solution demands." - Aristotle
* TagZilla 0.057 * http://tagzilla.mozdev.org

I'm curious as to why rye bread is sold cut into very thin slices in
packets. Other bread is sold in loaves and variations on loaves.

Are you referring to cocktail rye? Those little slices are intended as
party fare, to carry fine and pungent flavors to you mouth. Rye bread
is available in ordinary loaves as well, sliced or unsliced. Check out
the finer foods sections of your markets.

Byvordhr

In article ,
Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
I'm curious as to why rye bread is sold cut into very thin slices in
packets. Other bread is sold in loaves and variations on loaves.

Is this just an historical accident or is there some reason for it?

Toughness. Unless you have an electric slicer it's too difficult
for most people to cut a slice thin enough to bite through. (Since
I use very sharp knives I probably could, but with a breadknife,
forget it).

I have never had problems cutting rye bread with a knife.

It needs to be thick enough that the crust can be enjoyed.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558

wrote:
Are you referring to cocktail rye? Those little slices are intended as
party fare, to carry fine and pungent flavors to you mouth. Rye bread
is available in ordinary loaves as well, sliced or unsliced. Check out
the finer foods sections of your markets.

"Cocktail rye" is not a product I'm familiar with, but I wonder if the
OP was referring to pumpernickel, which is of course an extremely dense,
firm-textured rye bread and usually, in my experience, comes pre-sliced
very thinly.

"Rye bread" is not really a helpful term since it could mean any one of
a number of different types of bread, some of which are soft, some of
which are hard.

d.

"Cocktail rye" is not a product I'm familiar with...

"Cocktail rye" in the US is usually a light caraway loaf, quite small
(about 2 inches across the slices), sold clear, crackly wrappers. I
think the wrappers are essential to the presentation. ;-) It's sliced
to a quarter inch or so in thickness.

Skep

On Sun, 22 May 2005 13:12:58 -0400, Gretchen Beck
wrote:


In the US, that sort of rye bread is sold in specialty stores as
"Pumpernickel". Bread made from rye and wheat flour, labelled rye bread,
is sold in loaves just like regular bread. Of course, we've also got
several varieties (Jewish rye, which is light colored and weight with
caraway seeds, Deli rye which is light without caraway seeds, marble rye
which is a swirl of rye and white bread, a different loaf pumpernickel
which is dark and dense and sometimes also has caraway seeds).

Due to a pack of pumpernickel bread I bought a while ago, the
difference of normal rye breads and pumpernickel is time and
temperature in the oven. Pumpernickel is baked at low temperature for
18 hours making any complex carbohydrates broken down to glucose and
then caramelized.

Obviously not so healthy for diabetics as other rye breads are.

I myself buy in shops a ready made blend of rye and other things
called Dansk rugbrød (Danish Rye bread) which I add yeast and water
(and some time wheat flour in order to make it leaven better) and let
it leaven for 1 to 2 hours, and then bake it for 1 hour around 200 deg
C.