Feeding natural ferment with rye flour Hearth Bread and Flatbread Discuss Feeding natural ferment with rye flour in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; I maintain three natural pre-ferments in my refrigerator, a Camaldoli, an Ischia and a former Carl, nowadays a mixture of ...

[arevalo53anos]

I maintain three natural pre-ferments in my refrigerator, a Camaldoli, an Ischia and a former Carl, nowadays a mixture of the three.
I usually feed them every two or three weeks, just by adding wheat flour and water, repeating the feeding by three times and returning the ferments to the refrigerator, as normal.
The past month I decided to use rye flour to refresh them. Wow, it was an explosion!
The ferments developed a lot and grew as popcorns.
This last week I used them as part of Pannetone recipe, and this one grew so fast and big that surprises me. (Pannetone recipe, directions and pics following asap).
Just to check, I repeated the recipe a couple of days after and the results were consistent, even using wheat flour to the last refresh.
Just based in this experience, I strongly recommend to anyone using natural pre-ferments, give to rye flour a try. It could be a pleasant surprise.

Luis

[Dutchoven]

Luis
Have you noticed a difference in flavor...I have found that the rye starter tends to give it a complex tang...not sour really but a tang...I'd love to know what you think...rye sours are a big part of eastern european breads
Best
Dutch

[arevalo53anos]

Dutch:

I fed the preferment just to give a burst and they went to the refrigerator without use on bread or pizza.
Actually, I did some biscuits as I normally do with the ‘discarded halves’ of the refreshment and I did not notice any difference.
After that, the preferment were fed twice with wheat flour before them be used to do the pannetones. No influences too.
In the future, I will feed them with rye flour and bake some pizza, and will post the differences in taste, if any.
Of course, rye flour make a big difference when included in any bread recipe, however we are speaking about 10 percent (or more) of it.

Luis