AMERICAN RYE BREAD METHODS
In Europe most all of the rye breads are raised with sour dough, but American bakers employ a variety of methods; some bakers are using the sour dough process, others are taking a part sour dough and use compressed yeast with it, others use a potato ferment, or compressed yeast without sour dough. The sour dough process recommends itself because it is cheap; all that is required is a small piece of rye bread dough left over from the previous day’s batch for a start; there is no yeast to pay for. It is a process which requires experience and close attention to make a nice and palatable bread. The difficulty lies in the treatment of the sour dough. This dough should not be sour, as the name would make one believe; it should be kept up to a certain degree of sweetness by refreshing or renewing it regularly. Rye breads made with sour dough have a peculiar characteristic flavor; this flavor is lacking in rye breads which are raised only with yeast.
A combination process, in which yeast and sour dough are used together, either with a sponge, or also in a straight dough, produces a sweeter loaf, and there is not as much danger of getting the bread too sour (which may happen in the straight sour dough process), if not closely watched. Yeast added to the sour dough secures a stronger and shorter fermentation, and only one sponge is used in the process, while, with sour dough only, two successive sponges are employed. The short yeast and sour dough process gives just enough acidity to the dough to give a good taste.
Rye bread is also made with ferment. One Detroit bakery makes from 400 to 600 loaves per day by this process. The potato ferment is made in the afternoon (they use potato flour), stocked away with dry yeast, and in the morning a straight dough is made with ferment and more water. This process makes a nice, moist and sweet loaf and sells well.
In other bakeries, the left-over pieces of rye and wheat dough which accumulate during the day from the dough-mixer and the dough, are used for a sort of sour dough, for a start, or in place of the regular sour dough. The scraps are thinned down with water, and in the evening some yeast is added and a sponge is set with more rye flour; the rye dough is made from this sponge afterwards. This method works all right, but care must be taken not to add too much old dough, and also to take the dough young, otherwise it is apt to make a dry, flat loaf and the bread cracks easily in baking.
Some bakers set a sponge with compressed yeast and rye flour and let the sponge drop twice. The sponge is made very slack, and contains two-thirds of the water, and the other third part of the water is put on for the dough. Letting the sponge drop twice gives it a little more acidity to the dough. This process would make a much better flavored bread if the sponge was taken on the first drop, and for doughing three or more pounds of old rye dough added, according to the amount of bread to be made; it would give better flavor and make a moister loaf.
In other bakeries where only a small quantity of rye bread is required, bakers do not set a separate sponge for rye; they dip out of a broken-up wheat sponge and make the dough with rye flour; a piece of sour dough is added by some bakers, which gives better flavor to bread made by this method. The sour dough process consists of a succession of sponges; every day a small piece of sour rye dough is left over for this purpose to begin with. It is important in this process to keep the sour dough from getting too old, because when too old it becomes putrid and loses strength. Where rye bread is not made every day, or where sour dough is kept over from Saturday to Monday, we used to work plenty of rye flour with some salt in the piece of dough kept over, and make a very stiff dough, and rolled this in a well-dusted flour bag and kept in a cold place till required. (In southern Germany the sour dough is kept in a liquid state, it is thinned with cold water and kept in a cold place.) Only a small quantity is required for a start; this is freshened up once or twice before it is made into the first and second sponge, after which the final dough is made. For instance, to make a batch of 100 pounds of rye flour into bread the procedure is as follows: Two pounds of sour dough are freshened up with one quart of water and one pound of rye flour into a soft sponge at about 75 to 80 degrees Fahr. After three hours add two more quarts of water and about six pounds of flour and make this into a medium firm sponge, this is called “grund sour.” In from five to six hours this will be ready for the second sponge or “voll sour.” For this second sponge add fifteen quarts of water and with about forty pounds of flour make a soft sponge. This sponge will be ready in from three to three and one-half hours and drop. For the dough add fifteen quarts of water, about one and one-half pounds of salt and about fifty-two pounds of rye flour and make a smooth stiff dough. After the dough is made it should not be given much time to come on before scaling and moulding, because the large second sponge will cause the dough to ripen quickly during the time it is scaled and moulded. This should be done in as short a time as possible so the first loaves do not get too much proof before the rest is moulded. For a smaller batch more time can be given. This process of getting the sponges ready for the final dough may seem tedious to some readers, but the rye bread is baked generally during the daytime, while breads and rolls are baked at night, the freshening-up and setting first and second sponge is done during the night, this is particularly so where there is only one oven.
In the large rye bread bakeries, where they bake many batches per day, a batch is baked every two and a half to three hours. A larger “grund sour” and less water on the “voll sour” with a moderately warm temperature ripens sponge and doughs more rapidly and gets the bread ready for the oven in a short time.