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.

In a recent paper upon this same subject, Geo. Freeman, of Kalamazoo, an expert baker, had the following to say upon how to make genuine rye bread.

During my career as journeyman baker, working in different shops, I have found there were hardly two who made rye bread precisely the same. But although they work different ways the result aimed at was the same. Some got it pretty regularly and others did not. But since giving the subject a little extra thought I see where I and others have worked very much in the dark, and during the course of my remarks I shall endeavor to throw as much light on the subject as I possibly can, from the viewpoint of a baker, to bakers, and so enable you (who do not already) to see it as clearly as I do myself. I have here, gentlemen, two loaves of what I consider genuine rye bread, the formula for which has never given me any trouble since I adopted it. I will tell you first how I made them and the why and wherefore afterwards.

We will take for example a six gallon dough for a 125 pound batch. From the previous day’s rye sponge, I have saved one pound of sponge in the crock and kept it in the ice box, so the first thing I do is to take half a pint of water and skim milk and bring it up to required temperature; and add to the one one pound of sponge in the crock and stir in sufficient rye flour to make a little stiff dough, the temperature of which must be from 92 to 95 degrees, and let stand until the sponge is ready.

Next take half an ounce of hops and boil about 20 minutes in two quarts of water; strain off the hops, saving the liquor for the sponge.

Next I prepared the blend of flour taking 40 per cent. blended Wisconsin rye; 20 per cent. pure black Wisconsin rye; 40 per cent. low grade spring.

We now come to the sponge, making a six gallon dough. I take four gallons for the sponge, being two-thirds of total liquor in the sponge and one-third or two gallons at doughing stage.

I take three and one-half gallons of water (at required temperature); seven ounces of yeast, two quarts of hop liquor, twenty-eight pounds of prepared blend of flour, about one-third of total required.

Mix thoroughly. Temperature when mixed 80 degrees in summer; 84 degrees in winter.

You will notice I allow seven pounds of flour to the gallon of water in the sponge, which makes it medium soft, causing it to show the drop good. A stiff rye sponge will sometimes hold up on top until it is completely rotten. On this account I have water and flour weighed accurate for rye sponge.

The sponge is usually ready in three and a half to four hours. I give it a full drop and regulate how far it comes up the second time by the strength of the flour. In this instance the sponge took one full drop and had risen half way up the second time when I took it. I have already had to give the sponge the second full drop when using very strong flour.

Now we come to the doughing stage: Two gallons water (about 10 degrees lower temperature than required for sponge); two pounds of sour from crock; one pound eleven ounces of salt; 50 pounds of the same blend of flour as used in the sponge. Mix good and thorough. The temperature should be about 80 degrees in summer when finished, and 84 in winter.

I cover it up and allow to stand until when I push my fist well into it and withdraw quickly, it recedes slightly instead of resisting. It is generally one and a half to two hours in getting ready. I then throw it out on the table and have it scaled, rounded up, made into loaves, set in boxes, dusted with corn meal, with the crease down and set away to prove. When the loaves had risen or increased in bulk about 50 per cent. we washed them over with boiled corn starch and water, and set them in the oven to bake; the oven being as near 400 degrees as we can get it, with steam running in. The steam is left running in until the loaf is done rising, then we shut it off and open the steam damper a few minutes. A few minutes before we commence to draw we turn the steam on again to glaze the crust, which does away with washing after it comes out of the oven. We let it bake until it a good rich brown and gives a firm sound when rapped with the knuckles. The result of this description you see in these two loaves.

Now, gentlemen, I will endeavor to tell you in as short and plain a way as I know how why I did or did not do certain things.

I will take the sour first: That is the cause of endless trouble to most bakers, and many have stopped using it altogether. The idea is to produce just a little acid taste to the bread and still retain the full, sweet rye flavor, a kind of “bitter sweet” as one may say. People who like a little of it in their rye bread would be the first ones to disdain sour and flavorless rye bread from over-fermentation. And I would not blame them either. So the old fashioned idea of adding sour is an excellent one, if conducted rightly. And I find when it is done right it contains a high per cent. of lactic acid—the same bacillus the farmers and dairymen develop by letting their milk sour before churning to give a flavor to their butter and cheese. The same bacillus gives the acid taste to buttermilk and cottage cheese, and what German does not like them? Now milk may be said to be the home of lactic bacillus; that is why you heard me say add water and skim milk. The ideal temperature for its development is 95 degrees. You notice milk turns sour very quickly during hot weather; that is the reason.

Do not make the sour over night, as at the conclusion of the lactic ferment others, undesirable, may commence and cause you endless trouble.

Do not put the sour in the sponge and think to save a little yeast that way. It may turn your whole sponge sour, and spoil your bread. If you want a little more acid taste to the bread, use a little more sour, and vice versa.

You will notice I use a little hops (or rather hop liquor) in the sponge. The reason is to keep the sponge as pure and sweet as possible. Rye flour differs from wheat flour in that there is in rye flour scarcely any of what we call gluten. It analyzes a higher content of albuminoids than the average wheat flour, but they are nearly all soluble in water, and therefore, ready for easy assimilation by bacteria, and as it is this the proteids bacteria thrive on they have an easy chance to start a very undesirable fermentation, unless something is used to hold them in check. Therefore, I advise using a little hops which will do it effectually.

Now we come to the doughing stage again: We have kept our sponge in good condition and it is ready. We must still keep the dough cool and maintain the alcoholic fermentation throughout, but here we do not need to use any hops, even though we have the sour, as here we have the best retarder of all, plenty of salt, which not only brings out the flavor, but holds in check all foreign ferments, as long as there is any food left for the yeast to thrive and work on. So be sure to take your dough as soon as you know it is ready.

Regarding the blending of flour, gentlemen, everybody knows the blend of flour to make the loaf that his trade demands. Some places they demand a big loaf and the baker uses more spring; some places they do not trouble about size, and the baker used less spring and more rye.

I think I have said sufficient, so in conclusion let me remind you: Keep your sponge cool, use plenty of good yeast, do not let your sour get too old, keep your dough cool, use plenty of salt, and do not have it wait when you know it is ready and you will have no trouble in making Genuine Rye Bread.