IngredientsFlour & grain
Sauerteigsourdough starter
Flour and water with lactic acid bacteria and wild yeasts living in it. The bacteria make the acid, the yeasts make the gas.
Anstellgut is the piece you keep back from the last dough and go on feeding. The next sourdough grows out of it.
Warum bei Roggenwhy rye needs it
Rye carries a lot of active amylase. With nothing to stop it, the enzyme breaks the starch down in the oven and the crumb turns gummy instead of firm.
The acid from the starter drops the pH and keeps the enzyme quiet. That is why rye bread raised with baker's yeast alone fails, however good the yeast is.
In Mexikoin Mexico
Sourdough is known here as masa madre. A live starter can be ordered through Mercado Libre.
Otherwise ask at a panadería artesanal.
Ansetzenstarting one
Equal parts rye flour and water, covered but not sealed, fed once a day.
At 30 degrees it is ready in three or four days; in a cool kitchen it takes a week. On the coast the heat works in your favour.
Vorsichtwatch out
In coastal heat it goes over-sour fast. It smells sharp, like vinegar, and the bread turns sour rather than aromatic.
Keep it cold and feed it more often. Two small feeds a day beat one big one.