Paul wrote:
>
> The reason that I don't keep a pure rye starter is because I have read that
> they will become rancid if not fed very regularly.

Duh - 'nother fairy tale... 'd be interested where that's coming from.
Dude - don't swallow everything you read, especially with sourdough in
baking books. FG rye is the stuff you can relax with...

> I have to put my starters
> in the fridge for a week to 10 days at a time sometimes. My wheat starter
> deals with that kind of rest period without a hitch. Would a rye starter be
> able to endure periods of long neglect?

I keep my starters in the fridge for 2 month without refresh and guess
which one's are coming up quicker and are more reliable under those
conditions?

> I can understand why a rye starter might get off to a faster start, but it's
> unclear to me why I cannot convert a wheat starter to rye. Same flora,
> right?

Not necessarily - can be different. Germ counts are lower in wheat
sourdoughs and microorganisms tool their machinery to what's available.
Food is definitely more complex in full grain flours - and that's what
you get: more complexity in taste.

You can convert it from white to FG rye, it will grow fine and I still
think you can work with your existing starter by changing the paramaters
to get it more sour.

I did it once and converted a rye starter to white wheat flour and back
to rye and it was a significant loss in bread taste. On the other side,
growing a white flour starter from a rye resulted in good tasting white
bread. I drew my conclusions from that and practicality.

So, you got plenty of options to play with.

Samartha

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