How to make a Rye Mother
Making a Rye Mother
Introduction
To set a Rye Mother down, start a week before you need the bread. Once up and running your mother will improve with age, as we all do, and will always be there ready to use. If you look after her and want to bake bread every day then she will need feeding with enough flour and water each day at least 12 hours before you need to start making bread.
If you bake once a week then feed her as soon as you have produced your last loaf, cover and put her into the fridge. Unfed she will last a month, but should be removed and fed at least 12 hours before re-use, using warm water to get her going again.
A nice thick creamy consistency just thicker than a Yorkshire pudding batter should keep a nice balance between flavour and baking performance – for those of a scientific bias, the pH should be between 3.5 and 4.
Making your Rye Mother
Place 50g of medium rye into a medium sized mixing bowl and add 75g of hot water. Beat to a creamy batter, cover with a plastic bag to keep the moisture in and stand in a warm part of the kitchen but not directly onto a radiator or above the cooker. She will be happiest at 18 to 22°C if possible and leave her for 24 hours without disturbance.
Next day add another 25g of rye flour and 35 to 40g of hot water, mix and set aside as before.
Repeat this process for the next five days. By then your mother will be active and time she will be active and you will feel the gas bubbles between your fingers.
On the 6th day you will have about 500g of mother in the bowl and it is now that you need to decide what breads to make and how often. It may be advisable to split the mother in two and freeze one half as a backup. The yeasts will recover even after freezing - give it one good feed of 75g of flour plus 100g of hot water, stand at room temperature for at least 12 hours then she will be ready to bake with or restart your main mother.
As ever, there are as many many different interpretations of a rye sour as there are ideas on producing and keeping a mother. Keep it simple. Once you understand the basics then experiment with some of the more complicated formula's you will read in the recipe books.
Added by: tom
rye sourdough starter
I use a large jar with a lid and keep it in a draught-free part of the kitchen, but any warm part of the house will do, even a bedroom. My recipe, which always works, is for 3 tablespoons of rye flour, 3 tablespoons of water at 40C and a spoonful of honey to start. For the first forty-eight hours, I only stir the mixture once, then add the same amount of flour and water at the end of the 48 hours. By then there will already be small bubbles and the mixture will be smelly. I add another 3 tbps each of rye flour and water after 24 hours. I then make a sponge with 300g of rye flour and 400ml of water. After that you can make pain de campagne or black bread or anything you like. But it's no use making sourdough unless you have a warm place, or can rise the dough at about 30 degrees C. I tried other recipes that recommended rising it at room temperature and they always failed. If I want a really light dough, I add a small amount of fresh yeast on the morning of baking.
graymalkin@btopenworld.com: 2010-01-29 Add reply
RE: rye sourdough starter
I guess it depends on your room temperature Leslie! My rye doughs rise quite happily at anywhere between 21 degrees c and up to about 28 degrees c. Just take a bit longer maybe at the lower temperatures. Ditto white sourdoughs. In fact some are quite happy rising overnight in the fridge at 4 degrees c and being baked from cold in the morning. If you want a milder sourdough then it is a good idea to use a smaller amount of old starter to new material and ferment it quickly, however for those people who like 'sour' sourdough then a longer cooler bulk ferment is often preferable with a larger initial amount of starter in the dough...
Zeb in Bristol: 2010-02-17
How do I keep the mother warm enough?
It's winter, our home is draughty...i feel like we don't stand a chance! Any tips?
tuula.drews@gmail.com: 2010-01-29 Add reply
RE: How do I keep the mother warm enough?
Hi, I have been keeping a rye sourdough starter for 2.5 years now. I made it from scratch and kept it first on worktop, then in the fridge. At some point I decided to feed it just with rye flour so by now it is 100% rye. You do not need specific temperatures to keep it happy, but you do need patience. Mine lives in a plastic container in the fridge. I pierced the lid for some air. In the beginning I was nervous about the smell and consistency, and threw my first batch out. Now I know that the starter goes through phases of smelling unpleasantly beery or becoming flat. All I can say: Don't worry! Keep it where you can, draft or not/ warm or not. Keep feeding it and keep baking with it. Yes, in cold seasons it will make flatter bread and take ages to rise. I think it's ok that my starter goes through seasons- bubbly/ dull, expanding/ contracting. Live with it, and learn to love the results. :-)
Heike: 2010-05-04
RE: How do I keep the mother warm enough?
Hi Peter - thanks for responding so quickly, that sounds awesome, if we had an airing cupboard....this has been the bain of our breadmaking life - my husband tried for 3 weeks this summer and we failed miserably! Anyhow, will buy some rye flower and have a go! Thank you! If you have any other thoughts, let me know...
tuula.drews@gmail.com: 2010-01-29
RE: How do I keep the mother warm enough?
I use the airing cupboard where my electric water heater resides. This give me a fairly constant 27ºC and works really well.
petermance@gmail.com: 2010-01-29