Curly Sue wrote:
> I know that rye flour doesn't have any particular taste itself,

Good rye flour does indeed have a particular flavor

>but usually when I get a sandwich with "rye" bread, it has a particular
> flavor (caraway?), which I associate with rye bread.

Not necessarily, there's rye bread and seeded rye bread... and real
seeded Jewish sour rye bread contains "charnuska", not caraway... but
caraway is okay too, not going to find it with charnuska anymore unless
you make your own. I used to bake my own but it's been years, doesn't
really pay for one or two loaves. Seeded or not, both are good, when
it's the real deal. I like the seeded with meat, unseeded with fish
(tuna salad, herring, smoked fish, even egg salad).

> So today I wanted some rye bread to finish off some corned beef for
> sandwiches. By the time I got there this afternoon, the little bakery
> was all out of bread (it's an Italian bakery so I don't even know if
> they'd have rye). Aha! What about the new kosher grocery store right
> across the street? Although the square footage is bigger than most of
> the kosher stores in the area (which are about the size of convenience
> stores), they didn't have much in the way of bread. I picked up one
> of the only rye loaves, which was labeled "Jewish rye." When I got it
> home and tried a piece, it pretty much looks and tastes like white
> bread. It's nice and fresh, but not what I expected even from a light
> rye and I really don't need this much (2 lb!) of white bread.
>
> There is no doubting the Jewish credentials of this place or the bread
> (judging from the label), so I guess I was off the mark. I will avoid
> "Jewish rye bread" when I want whatever it really is that I want when
> I find out what that is.
>
> My question is... what do I look for to get the kind of bread you get
> in a Jewish *deli* (or any other, for that matter) when you tell them
> you want "rye"? What is the default rye? "Caraway rye?"
> pumpernickel? or something else?

Depends where you reside. Very few locals in the world sell authentic
Jewish sour rye bread.... in the US perhaps four, NYC (you knew that),
Chicago, Los Angeles (eh!), and usta be Miami but perhaps no more.
There is no such thing as authentic Jewish sour rye bread sold
commercially, it's only available from an old fashioned kosher
bakery... the ones in the stupidmarket in cellophane are dreck,
regardless under what Jewish name; Levys, Grossingers, Manischewitz,
etal., all G'Barge! Pumpernickel is a type of rye bread, sometimes
available as "marble", like marble cake only half rye, half
pumpernickel... pumpernickel has no seeds, and never molasses, the dark
color is from burnt sugar... and very little is used, burnt sugar is
black like coal, a very potent colorant.

Sheldon