Cooking and Recipes

[Nuytsia]

Ok here we are in the Recipes thread!
I actually was at this website looking at seeds the other day and was surprised to see THEY sell sourdough culture:
hope this works
(scroll down a bit)

I am pretty sure I've seen it elsewhere, but I couldn't say just where right now! The one above seems pretty pricey! It doesn't seem to say whether it's for wheat or rye though.

I tried to do a wheat flour sourdough starter ages ago and I can't remember what method I used but I don't recall having much success.
At the moment I just make bread with 100% rye flour and water. I didn't get a startup culture from anywhere so I am not sure what I am cultivating in there exactly!! I imagine the bacteria (and yeast?) that grows is what comes with the flour (and maybe my air/water?)
It's not like a regular loaf of bread at all, it's like what they sell in the shops as 'pumpernickel rye' if anyone has had that. I love it mmmmmm.
Every time I've tried to make a lighter rye/wheat blend loaf it's always been a disappointment. I do also make regular wheat bread too sometimes, and lately I've made a few wholemeal / whole wheat breads that turned out really well. Previously I've not really liked that type of bread, but the cruel reality turned out to be that I was being lazy and not doing enough kneading!

Now rye bread is one the (many) Finnish cuisines that seems to be an acquired taste. It's one of those things Finns living abroad report missing the most (alongside salmiac which is just , er... ammonium chloride) but most the rest of the world seems to manage just fine without!

How could anyone not love Finnish rye bread??!! Actually I love anything that's sourdough. Yum! But I think Australian bakeries leave a lot (A LOT) to be desired compared to European ones. Poor us! That's why we all want to bake our own bread!
And what's the deal with the ammonium chloride? Is this like a Finnish equivalent of vegemite or something?

I LOVE RYE BREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly! So that's Rye lovers: 3, non-lovers: 0.
Ah, I was going to mention "sourdough starter" but you beat me to it, Nuytsia. Where on the internet can you get sourdough starters? I had no idea! Hmmm, maybe we should move ourselves over to the recipes thread...