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Sourdough (rec.food.sourdough) Discussing the hobby or craft of baking with sourdough. We are not just a recipe group, Our charter is to discuss the care, feeding, and breeding of yeasts and lactobacilli that make up sourdough cultures. |
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On Mar 17, 9:54 am, Jayne Kulikauskas >
wrote: > I have been given a wheat-based starter. I have about 1 liter of it. One of > the people I'm baking for is allergic to wheat so I would like to switch it > to rye. I have a recipe for a spelt-rye sourdough bread that I want to try > that calls for 2 quarts of rye-based starter.... Jayne, Here are some numbers for 1 gram of typical "levain" culture... (from Calvel's Taste of Bread) Food Laboratory of the National Institute of Agronomic Research in Dijon: 20 million yeast cells 1.03 billion lactobacilli cells Western Regional Research Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley 15 to 28 million yeast cells 600 million to 2 billion lactobacilli cells This means that you have way too much starter to maintain in a healthy state. What you want is something on the order of 40 grams, or a couple of tablespoons... then you can ramp it up with 2 or 3 refreshment cycles to a cup or two and be ready to bake. There is no way you can activate a liter of starter other than making a least 2 or 3 liters more of it and then you've enough to make 40 loaves of bread. That may be your intention... I hope so since that is a lot of goodness to share <g>. As for making a wheat starter into a rye stater... try this... 1) ensure a small portion of your wheat starter (100 grams or so) is very active 2) dilute it with another 50 grams of water, stir well 3) let it settle 4) decant the water on top and feed it some rye 5) go from there There will be enough yeast and LBs in the decanted water to get your next starter going and you will carry an insignificant amount of wheat material into the new culture. |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
Jayne Kulikauskas wrote:
> ...but it assumes starting the > leaven on rye.) Will changing flours make the yeast and bacteria cultures > unstable? Do I need to do anything to compensate for this like add the rye > flour in stages? > I would keep your storage leaven with white flour. You can get rye leaven by taking a small amount (teaspoon or less) and feed it on rye, doubling up(or more) each feeding until you have the required amount of rye leaven. If you are going to bake a lot of rye, keep a separate rye leaven. Some have suggested that the wheat to rye conversion is a one way trip. The concern is that a wheat culture converted to rye and then back to wheat will lose its identity by picking up different critters from the rye. That is the basis for suggesting a separate rye culture. Regards, Charles |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
I have been given a wheat-based starter. I have about 1 liter of it. One of
the people I'm baking for is allergic to wheat so I would like to switch it to rye. I have a recipe for a spelt-rye sourdough bread that I want to try that calls for 2 quarts of rye-based starter. Can I just add rye flour and water to my starter to make 3 quarts? This would give me 2 quarts of intermediate leaven for my recipe and another quart as storage leaven. (This is the procedure suggested in the recipe, but it assumes starting the leaven on rye.) Will changing flours make the yeast and bacteria cultures unstable? Do I need to do anything to compensate for this like add the rye flour in stages? Thanks for any help. (If people recall my earlier post, here is an update: I still haven't baked any sourdough bread yet. The masonry heater has been finished and I have been learning to look after it. I picked up my copy of _Bread Builders_ and have been reading and rereading it. I have now obtained some starter and hope to try my first loaf in the next few days.) -- Jayne |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
I'd go with smaller amounts, maybe a teaspoon of your wheat starter and then maybe 3 teaspoons of rye. Once you get it going again, take another teaspoon and add 5 teaspoons of rye (water accordingly) and get it going again. Keep this going, until your wheat percentage is way below 1 %. It may be easier to get a clean rye starter and avoid wheat pollution in that manner. Try emailing me from my web site (samarttha.net) if you want to do that. Your starter characteristics will change with rye, but eventually, it will become a stable culture if you maintain a routine. Wheat allergies are often caused by candida albicans infections since the immune response mechanism to candida (if present from previous or present candida albicans damage) is triggered by wheat. A reduced immune response to wheat may be experienced with sourdough fermentations. Also, if there is an allergic response to wheat is present, by keeping the wheat starter and just adding some rye may again trigger the wheat allergy because there is still wheat in the bread. Spelt is related to wheat and may be still triggering an allergic response. Samartha Jayne Kulikauskas wrote: > I have been given a wheat-based starter. I have about 1 liter of it. One of > the people I'm baking for is allergic to wheat so I would like to switch it > to rye. I have a recipe for a spelt-rye sourdough bread that I want to try > that calls for 2 quarts of rye-based starter. Can I just add rye flour and > water to my starter to make 3 quarts? This would give me 2 quarts of > intermediate leaven for my recipe and another quart as storage leaven. > (This is the procedure suggested in the recipe, but it assumes starting the > leaven on rye.) Will changing flours make the yeast and bacteria cultures > unstable? Do I need to do anything to compensate for this like add the rye > flour in stages? Thanks for any help. > > (If people recall my earlier post, here is an update: I still haven't baked > any sourdough bread yet. The masonry heater has been finished and I have > been learning to look after it. I picked up my copy of _Bread Builders_ and > have been reading and rereading it. I have now obtained some starter and > hope to try my first loaf in the next few days.) > |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
Jayne Kulikauskas wrote:
> I have been given a wheat-based starter. I have about 1 liter of it. One of > the people I'm baking for is allergic to wheat so I would like to switch it > to rye. I have a recipe for a spelt-rye sourdough bread that I want to try > that calls for 2 quarts of rye-based starter. Can I just add rye flour and > water to my starter to make 3 quarts? This would give me 2 quarts of > intermediate leaven for my recipe and another quart as storage leaven. > (This is the procedure suggested in the recipe, but it assumes starting the > leaven on rye.) Will changing flours make the yeast and bacteria cultures > unstable? Do I need to do anything to compensate for this like add the rye > flour in stages? Thanks for any help. > > (If people recall my earlier post, here is an update: I still haven't baked > any sourdough bread yet. The masonry heater has been finished and I have > been learning to look after it. I picked up my copy of _Bread Builders_ and > have been reading and rereading it. I have now obtained some starter and > hope to try my first loaf in the next few days.) > If your friend is really allergic to wheat, you probably should make a starter that is wholly rye or take a tiny bit of this one and build it up with rye for a few days so that very little wheat is left. Ellen |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
Jayne Kulikauskas wrote:
> I have been given a wheat-based starter. I have about 1 liter of it. One of > the people I'm baking for is allergic to wheat so I would like to switch it > to rye. I have a recipe for a spelt-rye sourdough bread that I want to try > that calls for 2 quarts of rye-based starter. If your friend is *allergic* to wheat, spelt may or may not be acceptable. (It works well, for me.) But if the problem is celiac sprue, spelt is generally way too close to modern wheat, and can cause the same intestinal distress and injury. Oh - I did find that *whole grain* spelt affected me similarly to wheat, just not as badly. Basically, be careful, and try a small amount first. Before I started baking my own, I lived for a while on a commercial white spelt "sourdough" bread I bought at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Claimed to be wheat-, egg-, and yeast-free, and was a pretty poor substitute for real bread, but I could at least make a sandwich! You might see if you can find that, and have your friend try a slice, before investing too much in baking with spelt. Dave |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On 17 Mar, 16:19, Dave Bell > wrote:
> .. You might see if you > can find that, and have your friend try a slice, before investing too > much in baking with spelt. > > Dave Hi Dave, Jayne my Mum's so sensitive to wheat she can't even have malt vinegar, most mustards, instant coffees, oats nor barley, etc, just the tiniest amount of wheat protein is enough to set off old Krakatoa. Most non- wheat grains are milled in the same mill as regular wheat so she has to make sure that everything she buys is 'suitable for celiacs'. Jayne I'm sure you've checked how sensitive your friend is. I agree with all the others too, by the way, on the quantity of starter you have, I rarely have more than a cupful and still sometimes have to throw some away if it's been longer than usual since the last bake. (I like my starter to be fresh. I find it more reliable that way). If your friend is quite sensitive to wheat but can take regular rye I'd take the smallest amount I could of the starter and refresh it quite a few times over a week to make sure you've got rid of all the wheat. Wheat destroys the villi in the gut of celiacs so it's more serious than just getting the squitters. Jim |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On 17 Mar 2007 07:32:24 -0700, Will wrote:
> On Mar 17, 9:54 am, Jayne Kulikauskas > > wrote: >> I have been given a wheat-based starter. I have about 1 liter of it. One of >> the people I'm baking for is allergic to wheat so I would like to switch it >> to rye. I have a recipe for a spelt-rye sourdough bread that I want to try >> that calls for 2 quarts of rye-based starter.... > > Jayne, > > Here are some numbers for 1 gram of typical "levain" culture... > (from Calvel's Taste of Bread) > > Food Laboratory of the National Institute of Agronomic Research in > Dijon: > > 20 million yeast cells > 1.03 billion lactobacilli cells > > Western Regional Research Laboratory of the University of California > at Berkeley > > 15 to 28 million yeast cells > 600 million to 2 billion lactobacilli cells > > This means that you have way too much starter to maintain in a healthy > state. The recipe comes from _Nourishing Traditions_ by Sally Fallon. She gives instructions for making a non-refrigerated starter that is fed a cup of flour a day and used once a week. This is the starter the recipe calls for. Is it possible that a leaven kept under those conditions would have far fewer yeast and lactobacilli cells than is typical? At any rate, since I did not make my starter following her instructions but presumably have a typical one, I better not use that recipe. Could you (or anyone) recommend another spelt-rye sourdough recipe? [...] > As for making a wheat starter into a rye stater... try this... > > 1) ensure a small portion of your wheat starter (100 grams or so) is > very active > 2) dilute it with another 50 grams of water, stir well > 3) let it settle > 4) decant the water on top and feed it some rye > 5) go from there > > There will be enough yeast and LBs in the decanted water to get your > next starter going and you will carry an insignificant amount of wheat > material into the new culture. Since I have so much starter I am going to try this method as well as the other suggestion. Thank you. -- Jayne |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 14:32:27 GMT, Charles Perry wrote:
[...] > Some have suggested that the wheat to rye conversion is a one way trip. > The concern is that a wheat culture converted to rye and then back to > wheat will lose its identity by picking up different critters from the > rye. That is the basis for suggesting a separate rye culture. I don't have any immediate plans to bake any wheat breads. I'm hoping to master a decent spelt-rye (which may take a while) and then I'd like to try a rye volkornsbrot. I only expect to be using a rye starter in the near future. I do like the idea of having the option open of doing wheat breads some day, though. I've read about freezing starter. Is that something easy enough for a beginner like myself to do? -- Jayne |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:55:56 -0600, Samartha Deva wrote:
> I'd go with smaller amounts, maybe a teaspoon of your wheat starter and > then maybe 3 teaspoons of rye. Once you get it going again, take another > teaspoon and add 5 teaspoons of rye (water accordingly) and get it > going again. Keep this going, until your wheat percentage is way below 1 %. I'm going to try both this technique and the one Will suggested. > It may be easier to get a clean rye starter and avoid wheat pollution in > that manner. Try emailing me from my web site (samarttha.net) if you > want to do that. My friend isn't that sensitive to wheat to make that necessary. But thank you for the offer. > Your starter characteristics will change with rye, but eventually, it > will become a stable culture if you maintain a routine. Are there likely to be problems with baking with it before it stabilizes? Is there anything I should be watching out for? -- Jayne |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:19:26 GMT, Dave Bell wrote:
> Jayne Kulikauskas wrote: >> I have been given a wheat-based starter. I have about 1 liter of it. One of >> the people I'm baking for is allergic to wheat so I would like to switch it >> to rye. I have a recipe for a spelt-rye sourdough bread that I want to try >> that calls for 2 quarts of rye-based starter. > > If your friend is *allergic* to wheat, spelt may or may not be > acceptable. (It works well, for me.) But if the problem is celiac sprue, > spelt is generally way too close to modern wheat, and can cause the same > intestinal distress and injury. Oh - I did find that *whole grain* spelt > affected me similarly to wheat, just not as badly. I'm pretty sure that it isn't celiac sprue because she eats things with spelt and kamut. > Basically, be careful, and try a small amount first. Before I started > baking my own, I lived for a while on a commercial white spelt > "sourdough" bread I bought at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Claimed to > be wheat-, egg-, and yeast-free, and was a pretty poor substitute for > real bread, but I could at least make a sandwich! You might see if you > can find that, and have your friend try a slice, before investing too > much in baking with spelt. I know that she eats breads made with spelt and doesn't seem to have problems with them. -- Jayne |
Posted to rec.food.sourdough
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On 17 Mar 2007 12:41:22 -0700, TG wrote:
[...] > my Mum's so sensitive to wheat she can't even have malt vinegar, most > mustards, instant coffees, oats nor barley, etc, just the tiniest > amount of wheat protein is enough to set off old Krakatoa. Most non- > wheat grains are milled in the same mill as regular wheat so she has > to make sure that everything she buys is 'suitable for celiacs'. My friend is nowhere near that sensitive. She even eats wheat on rare occasions. It does upset her stomach though, so she avoids it. -- Jayne |
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:29:47 GMT, ellen wickberg wrote:
[...] > If your friend is really allergic to wheat, you probably should make a > starter that is wholly rye or take a tiny bit of this one and build it > up with rye for a few days so that very little wheat is left. That's what it sounds like from various responses. I think that the trace of wheat that will be left shouldn't be a problem for her. -- Jayne |
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
Jayne Kulikauskas wrote:
> I've read about freezing starter. Is that something easy > enough for a beginner like myself to do? Yes. Regards, Charles |
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On Mar 17, 7:25 pm, Jayne Kulikauskas >
wrote: > On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 14:32:27 GMT, Charles Perry wrote: > > [...] > > > Some have suggested that the wheat to rye conversion is a one way trip. > > The concern is that a wheat culture converted to rye and then back to > > wheat will lose its identity by picking up different critters from the > > rye. That is the basis for suggesting a separate rye culture. > > I don't have any immediate plans to bake any wheat breads. I'm hoping to > master a decent spelt-rye (which may take a while) and then I'd like to try > a rye volkornsbrot. I only expect to be using a rye starter in the near > future. > > I do like the idea of having the option open of doing wheat breads some > day, though. I've read about freezing starter. Is that something easy > enough for a beginner like myself to do? > > -- > Jayne Jayne, I wish you the best of luck. It is good to be ambitious. That said... it might make sense to work with regular white flour or perhaps white flour blended with rye or spelt for a while until you get the feel for levain. And also... until you get the feel for those grains. Full bore rye makes wonderful bread. But it is a real challenge. It is sticky, it is hard to handle, it does not rise (much), gives no fermenting/ proofing signals, and on and on... Spelt on the other hand is dry. The berry is hard, the hull is very dense. The flour, unless you are buying highly refined stuff, makes an inelastic dough... and so on. All of which is to say... rye and spelt are tough customers. You may find that your friend is able to eat naturally leavened breads comfortably. My son is sensitive to wheat. A regular yeast, wheat bread makes him unhappy... but he is fine with a well ripened SD wheat bread. There's something about a long ferment... who knows precisely what... but I'd bet most folks who post here would agree: SD bread is easier to digest. |
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Converting wheat-based starter to rye
On 18 Mar 2007 12:10:49 -0700, Will wrote:
[...] > Jayne, > > I wish you the best of luck. It is good to be ambitious. That said... > it might make sense to work with regular white flour or perhaps white > flour blended with rye or spelt for a while until you get the feel for > levain. And also... until you get the feel for those grains. Full bore > rye makes wonderful bread. But it is a real challenge. It is sticky, > it is hard to handle, it does not rise (much), gives no fermenting/ > proofing signals, and on and on... Spelt on the other hand is dry. The > berry is hard, the hull is very dense. The flour, unless you are > buying highly refined stuff, makes an inelastic dough... and so on. > All of which is to say... rye and spelt are tough customers. Maybe that explains why I found it so difficult to find a spelt-rye recipe. I gave up on looking for one online and just took a basic sourdough recipe, used my new rye starter (thanks to all for the advice on how to do make this) where it called for starter and added spelt where it said to add flour. I decided that trying to get the timing right for using the masonry oven was making things too complicated so I would just use my electric oven. However, the bread ended up ready to bake just as the masonry oven was at the right temperature so I stuck it in after all. I wasn't expecting much from this method so I was pleasantly surprised that my first loaf ended up edible (by people, not just the chickens). While it still needs work, it was reasonably close to what I was aiming for. Of course, this may have been beginner's luck. It remains to be seen if I can consistently produce edible bread. Still, my first loaf has boosted my confidence. > You may find that your friend is able to eat naturally leavened breads > comfortably. My son is sensitive to wheat. A regular yeast, wheat > bread makes him unhappy... but he is fine with a well ripened SD wheat > bread. There's something about a long ferment... who knows precisely > what... but I'd bet most folks who post here would agree: SD bread is > easier to digest. I have read about how much more healthy and digestible SD bread is. This was what first attracted my interest in it. -- Jayne |
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