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A Guide to Getting Good Rye Bread
Reprinted from the Zingerman’s Newsletter, January-February 2009
Based on everything I’ve learned here’s what goes into a good Jewish rye bread:
#1 A Good Rye Sour Starter
The old style, Jewish rye starter is made by taking the previous day’s fully baked rye bread—what Michael and the bakers of the era in which he grew up used to straightforwardly call “old.”
The general wisdom of course is that the consumer can’t tell the difference. We’ve never agreed with that, and I certainly don’t think it to be true about the rye bread. But…. others don’t always agree. Michael told me the story of one of running into one of the guys whose family had one of the best old time Jewish bakeries in the City. To Michael’s taste though the bread wasn’t as good as what he remembers. So Michael, who’s rarely afraid to hold back his opinions, asked if he was still using the old style starter. “Na!” he said forcefully. “Nobody knows the difference!” And then, Michael went on, “He took out this wad of bills, waves it front of me says, ‘Remember Michael, this is your best friend.” Yikes. That’s a bridge I don’t ever want to cross. Keeping the rye bread and its crust and flavor intact is not a ball I want to let drop. There’s so little left—the Bakehouse is the bridge that people can walk over to cross back to the way that bread was when Michael was growing up!
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