# Parboiled rye bread from Latvia, Recipe?



## Dutch 106 (Feb 12, 2008)

Hi Guys,
I've always heard of the black rye bread of the Russian peasants, there staff of life. it was supposed to black and very dense.
Well today I was in the European market in a nearby town. Ceylon black tea $5.95 for 500 Grams (1.1 lbs for the metric challenged) lovely stuff all in itself.
but I digress.
There in a cooler was a very dark loaf kinda small low curved loaf then I picked it up its 2 pounds, at 3.99 I'd started to pass as it was a small looking loaf. just 11, 12 inches long and 4-5 inches wide maybe 3 tall. but two pounds this sounded like it was what I had heard of.
Then in reading the label. I saw it was made in Latvia and had no preservatives, and contained only fine rye flour,water ,malt syrup, caraway seeds, sugar, salt, bran. no added oil? at all is rye oily enough on its own?
Its as you suspected very dense very dark brown loaf with a soft crust. and wonderful mouth feel. Its a rather sweet bread. Very pleasant with just butter on it. The caraway seed isn't in the front but definitely there.
Soo my question anyone got a family recipe for this bread why would they call it parboiled? or even one for real Russian black bread?
Thanks for any help!
Dutch
I'll post this down were I normally hang out with the tin foil hat folks as this would be great survival or just trail food. If its not a heck of a lot more work than regular bread.


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## Jeff54321 (Jan 26, 2005)

Any bread made from 100% rye _must_ be made with wild yeast (sourdough). As for the parboiled aspect I would guess that it refers to rye flour that was soaked in boiling water also known as rye mash. If you are an experienced bread baker you can make this bread. Having someone show you how would be the best way. If you have baked only with wheat and not rye then you face a sizable learning curve as rye is an entirely different grain than wheat and requires a whole different set of rules for baking.


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