Several decades on, I am still an oat-lover (in fact, I’m such a fan that I’m currently writing a book on traditional British uses of them). But if you look in my kitchen now, you’ll find many more types of oats than just my childhood rolled ones.

The choice on our shelves these days can be bewildering – groats, rolled, thick, old-fashioned, quick, instant, oatmeal, pinhead, steel-cut, sprouted, black and naked. This article is a comprehensive guide to the types of oats available, how they’ve been processed and how to use each type the traditional way.

What are oats?

Almost all of the oats you’ll find in kitchens throughout the world are seeds of the grass genus Avena Sativa. These grow covered by a hard, inedible hull which has to be removed before the seed can be used as a grain. The hull adheres strongly to the seed and in the process of removing it the grain is very often damaged and exposed to the air. This activates an enzyme called lipase which degrades the fats in the oats causing them to go rancid, giving them a bitter taste. To avoid this happening, oat grains are ‘stabilised’ (heat and steam treated) at the very early stages of processing.

Most of the oats we buy are already ‘cooked’

This stablilsation means that the oats that make it to our kitchens (unless they are naked or sprouted oats) have been ‘cooked’ using a mix of heat and moisture (at an average temperature of 90-100°C).

Once the dehulling and stabilisation has been completed, oats are processed in a number of ways. This article explains what you might see at your mill or supplier, sorted from the least-processed to the most-processed:

Types of oats, how they’ve been processed and how to use each the traditional way

Oat groats

These are whole, unground, uncut oat grain. As they are whole grains, they take the longest to cook of any oat.

These weren’t often traditionally-used for porridge (though our ancestors in the UK did use the for savoury ‘puddings’), but I think they are great cooked this way.

If you want to use oat groats for porridge/oatmeal, cook them as an alternative to rice or add them to a stew, I suggest soaking them overnight in water. The next day, drain and rinse them, before cooking for at least 35 minutes. For a cup of soaked groats, you’ll need around 3 cups of liquid (broth is a great savoury choice instead of water here!)

Stone-milled oats:

The only way of making the whole oat grains into smaller pieces, more suitable for cooking, until well into the 1900s was to process the grains in stone mill. This created a meal (rather than the more commonly found rolled oats we see today). This meal is what our European oat eating ancestors (who didn’t have rolled oats) would have eaten.

Why Our Scottish Ancestors Didn’t Eat Rolled Oats (link to article)

Stone milled oats are still available, though can be harder to source outside of the UK. They come in three grades:

Pinhead oatmeal

Oat groats ground between two millstones set very widely apart to break the groat into a few pieces.

This was traditionally used for porridge (oatmeal), particularly in Ireland.

To make a traditional pinhead oatmeal porridge, soak the oatmeal in water overnight using one part oatmeal to four parts water by weight (you can add a tablespoon of something acidic, like apple cider vinegar to aid digestion) and then, in the morning, cook the mix, adding some salt (traditionally porridge was salty, not sweet), for 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

Medium oatmeal (often called Scottish oatmeal in the US)

These oats have been stoneground with the millstones set to create a medium meal.

Medium oatmeal was traditionally used for porridge in Scotland and in many other parts of the UK. It was also used in haggis, in puddings and sausages and as a coating when frying fish.

To make a traditional medium oatmeal porridge the Scottish way, bring water to the boil and, when it’s boiling, sprinkle in the medium oatmeal, stirring constantly. Once all of the oatmeal is incorporated, turn the pan down low, add salt (traditionally porridge was salty, not sweet) and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring regularly. To serve three people I use 180g medium oatmeal, 900g water and a half teaspoon salt.

Fine oatmeal

By stone-grinding the oat grains with the millstones more closely together, a fine oatmeal is produced.

Fine oatmeal was traditionally used for oatcakes – a savoury oat cracker – as well as a thickener for soups and stews.

Try my recipe for Naturally-Fermented Staffordshire Oatcakes which makes a delicious crêpe-like pancake or my Traditional Scottish Oatcakes recipe which will give you authentic Scottish oat crackers, great with soups or some cheese!

(If you want to try these two recipes and you don’t have fine oatmeal, don’t despair, they can easily be made with rolled oats too – follow the instructions in the recipes!)

Oats produced in steel mills:

In contrast to this traditional stone milling, most of the oats on our shelves today have been processed in modern steel mills. Here’s what you can find:

Steel Cut/Irish oats

Steel cut oats are so called because steel blades cut the whole groat into two or three pieces.

This type of oats are often called Irish oats in the US because the pieces are the same size as pinhead oatmeal, the type of oatmeal historically used to make porridge in Ireland.

In the kitchen, steel cut oats work in a similar way to their stone-ground cousin, pinhead oatmeal. If you want to make a traditional porridge with them, follow the instructions in the pinhead oatmeal section above.

Rolled Oats:

Rolled oats are so ubiquitous these days that one might think they’ve always been around. They are, however, a modern creation; the process of rolling oats only having been invented in 1877.

The Differences Between Rolled Oats and Oatmeal (link to article)

All rolled oats, whether large or small, are steam processed (for a second time, remembering they’ve already been steamed to prevent rancidity) before being rolled. This makes them softer and less likely to create dusty waste.

‘Old-fashioned’ Oats/Rolled Oats/Jumbo Oats

These, being the largest form of rolled oats, are whole oat grains that are re-steamed and run through roller mills to create large flakes.

These can be used to make a non-traditional (but very tasty!) porridge. There’s no need to soak them, cooking for 10-15 minutes on the stove does the job. If you’d like to serve traditionally, add salt during the cooking time.

I also have some traditionally-inspired recipes that use rolled oats! Try my cheesy oatcake-topped cottage pie or my sourdough oatcakes.

‘Quick Cook’ Rolled Oats

To make these smaller flaked oats, broken oat grains are re-steamed and put through roller mills.

These take just a few minutes on the stove to produce a porridge.

‘Instant’ Rolled Oats

These are the smallest, and hence the quickest cooking, form of rolled oats. They were brought to the oat market in 1966 by Quaker (who are now ownedi by Pepsi). Small pieces of oat grain are re-steamed and put through roller mills to create tiny, thin flakes.

I don’t think our ancestors would recognise instant oats (in texture or flavour). As a real food oat-lover, I’ve never used these.

The oat challenge:

If you’ve only ever used rolled oats, try something different this week. It’s easy to get hold of pinhead or steel cut oats – soak them before bed and take a few more moments in the kitchen to cook up your porridge the next morning. I think you’ll be surprised at how great it tastes!

Different Types of Oats – FAQs

Which type of oats is the healthiest?

Generally, the less a food is processed, the healthier it is. With this criteria, oat groats, that have had no further processing than their initial dehulling and stabilising are the healthiest.

But I am of the mind that the real food that you like is the healthiest. If you’re buying, cooking, and eating real food that you will like you’re more likely to continue with it – so choose the type of oat you like best.

How can I access stone-ground oats outside of the UK?

There are companies that import oats that have been stone-ground in the UK to other parts of the world. Check online to see if there’s one near you. In the US, Bob’s Red Mill sell a product called ‘Scottish oatmeal’ which is stoneground oats that are similar to British medium oatmeal.

Can I roll my own oats at home?

Yes you can! And they taste so much better rolled at home! Have a look at my article How to Roll Oats at Home (& 3 Good Reasons To Do It!).

Can I stone-grind my own oats at home?

It is possible to stone-grind oats from groats at home, but it is very difficult to replicate the pinhead/medium/fine grades of oatmeal that are available from large stone mills. This is because the stone mills use a number of sieves to sieve the meal into uniform sizes.

If you have a Mockmill, you can grind oats on any number above #3 (do not grind them on numbers #1 or #2 – the grain is too fatty and will clog up your meal). Using #3 or above will grind the oats but will give you a range of particle sizes from very fine dust to large chunks of oat groat. For making porridge this method works practically but does not replicate the porridge that you would make with uniform-sized commercially-produced oatmeal

How To Make Stone-Ground Oats in the Mockmill (link to article)

I love porridge/oatmeal. What else can I make with oats?

So many things! Here’s a selection of my traditional and traditionally-inspired recipes:

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

Naturally-Fermented Staffordshire Oatcakes

Sourdough Oatcakes

Cheesy oatcake-topped cottage pie

Sowans: The Scottish Oat Ferment

You can get three traditional oat recipes in my free download The Heritage Oat Collection. Enter your details below and I’ll send to your inbox:

I am currently in the process of writing a book to be called Oats: Recipes & Stories from the British Isles. It will include 50 recipes along with the stories of how this grain sustained many generations of people in the UK. Stay in touch via my newsletter (there is a sign up at the top of every page on this site) to hear the latest on this.

How can I make my oats healthier?

Fermenting your oats will unlock more nutrition and make them easier to digest. Learn how in my comprehensive article:

How to Make Fermented Oats

Is buying organic oats important?

I would always recommend buying organic oats. Choosing organic means that you are supporting farmers who care for our soil and our environment, stewarding it for the next generation. It also means that any residues left over from pesticides or fertilisers aren’t on your grains.

What are ‘naked’ oats?

‘Naked’ oats are a type of oat that, instead of having a hard difficult-to-detach hull, has a paper-thin hull. It is easier to prepare these grains for human consumption – it takes a lot of energy to remove the hard hull on standard oats; not as much energy is needed to remove the paper-thin hull on ‘naked’ oats.

Because these ‘naked’ oats do not have to go through a tough, damaging, process to remove their hulls, they are not heated before they get to our shelves. This results in a oat that is raw.

What are sprouted oats?

Sprouted oats are raw oats that have gone through a soaking and germination process to sprout them. This process is then halted by drying and the sprout knocked off. The sprouted groats can then be used as you would use a standard oat.

What are black oats?

Black oats are a type of oats that has a black hull. They were traditionally grown in large areas of Scandinavia and in Wales. Here are some I saw on a visit to Holden Farm in Wales:

What about oat flour?

Oat flour is a modern phenomenon which is finer than fine oatmeal. It can be purchased but can also be made from oatmeal or rolled oats by processing them in a high-powered coffee grinder or mixer.

You might also like:

The Heritage Oat Collection

The Difference Between Rolled Oats and Oatmeal

Sourdough Porridge

The Fascinating History of Jannock: The Giant Oat Bread That Defined Authenticity!

The Best Way to Soak Oats

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

I’ve been making sowans in my kitchen regularly for over five years – I love it – and I have also delved into its history for my forthcoming book on traditional British oat dishes. If you’re curious about sowans, this is the article for you!

Sowans, with a Scottish voice, is pronounced ‘sue-ens’. You might see it spelled ‘sowens’ and in the Shetland Isles it was called ‘Virpa’

History of sowans

Although oats have been eaten in the United Kingdom for thousands of years, widespread oat farming only took hold after the Roman invasion when the troops, in order to feed their horses, brought the oat grain to the British Isles. Oats love the UK’s wet, mild climate and quickly caught on as a staple crop.

Although we don’t find the oat fermentation sowans mentioned in literature until the 1600s, it is very likely, knowing how long parts of the UK have subsisted on oats, that this dish was being made long before that date.

Oats were grown close to home. After harvest, the farmers would sent their sacks of oat grains to the mill to be ground into flour (rolled oats didn’t come onto the scene until much later, read about it in my article Why Our Scottish Ancestors Didn’t Eat Rolled Oats). Once the miller had done his job, the householder would not only get sacks of prepared oats back, but also sacks of ‘waste’ (called sids).

These sids were the hulls that had been knocked off the oats as they were processed. Clinging to them were tiny pieces of the centre of the oat grain – the white, starchy endosperm.

Sowans was a zero-waste food

Instead of being thrown away, this bag of waste, the sids, was transformed, through fermentation, into delicious, nutritious food – sowans.

When mixed with water, these sids contained everything needed to complete the fermentation naturally. The tiny pieces of white starch gave the microorganisms in the ferment starch to feed on, and the hull pieces were a haven for yeasts and bacteria. This means that no inoculant (or starter) was needed to create an active ferment – it was already natively in the grain.

Sowans is a porridge

Once the fermentation was complete, the mixture was put through a sieve which removed the pieces of hull/bran and produced a smooth, white liquid. This liquid, which contained the fermenting water and the tiny pieces of the white oat grain was then cooked to produce a porridge.

Making sowans also creates a probiotic drink called swats

The liquid that the oats were fermented with had it’s own name – swats (or swots). This can be drunk as is (and that way is a live probiotic) or can be cooked along with the sowans and therefore included in the porridge. Often, our ancestors would use a large amount of swats in the saucepan and create a liquidy ‘drinking sowans’.

Sowans was traditionally consumed by the whole family on Christmas Eve which was, in some parts of Scotland, knows as ‘sowans nicht’ (sowans night).

Sowans is a health food

Sowans was considered a health food in Scotland. Diving into the process, it’s easy to see why:

Starting with the raw ingredient – oats, as most of us know, oats are known to be beneficial to health. They have a role to play in lowering cholesterol and maintaining blood sugar levels. They also contain beta-glucan which is a prebiotic – meaning it feeds the probiotics in your intestines.

Both the sowans and swats are probiotic foods. Because we cook the porridge sowans, the live probiotics are lost. That does not mean, however, that all the benefits of the fermentation are lost; the latest research tells us that fermentation microbes which remain behind after cooking are extremely beneficial to our health (read more here).

In addition, because the starch in sowans has been both fermented and pre-digested, it can nourish us with proteins/vitamins and minerals with very little digestive effort. This allows our bodies energy to be used in healing, rather than trying to break down our food.

What does sowans taste like?

I have been making sowans and swats in my kitchen regularly, using modern ingredients and equipment, for years. Myself and my family enjoy the product of this fermentation often and love it.

Sowans is creamy and smooth – it feels to me like eating clouds! It’s nuanced in flavour – pleasantly tart but with delicious honey aromas that arise from the fermentation.

The liquid that the oats ferment in, swats, is zingy and fresh, reminiscent of watery lemon juice. It is refreshing drunk cold on a hot day but also wonderful warmed and spiced.

How do you make sowans?

We may not grow oats in our backyard or have access to sacks of sids from our local mill, but we can still enjoy the flavour and health benefits of sowans and swats in our kitchens today!

Oats can be fermented with water (I’d recommend a 1:4 ratio of oats to water) for several days, sieved and then cooked up into this historic, traditional dish.

My course, Sowans: The Scottish Oat Ferment, will guide you through the whole process, no matter what grains you have access to or equipment you have in your kitchen. It includes two hours of video guidance and plenty of downloads to keep at hand. I explain what to look for at every stage and how you can ensure you are safely fermenting your grains.

Here’s a little peak at one of the videos included in the course:

How to eat sowans (and swats)

I want to leave you with the ways my family eat sowans and swats:

Sowans porridge:

Most often, I make a thick porridge with sowans by mixing it with double its volume in water. Other times, I cook the fermented oats in the swats liquid (the swats) instead of water.

Traditionally, this was eaten with salt and butter, but it is also delicious with fruit, honey and nuts or any of the toppings we add to porridge/oatmeal these days!

I also love sowans as a mashed potato substitute! Here it is with sausages:

Drinking sowans:

Drinking sowans is a warming, comforting cuppa. Here, I add more liquid before cooking and make a pourable sowans. This is lovely infused with spices and sweetened with honey.

Sowans in baked goods:

Sowans can also be used as an ingredient in baked goods. Sowans scones were popular in Scotland (there’s a recipe for them in my course). I have also used sowans very effectively in bread-baking to make a ‘scald’ for my sourdough breads. Here’s a link to the recipe for the bread if you want to give it a go!

Swats

Swats is wonderful drunk as it is. It is full of probiotics, zingy and really refreshing from the fridge in hot weather.

But the way I drink it most is gently warmed. I love it straight warm – it’s comforting and nourishing drink. But most often I make what I’ve coined as ‘mulled swats’ – I gently warm the swats on the stove with spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamon, mace, anise.

Aside from drinking, I have used swats as the liquid part of my sourdough breads and built bread starters (or leavens) using swats. I also use the liquid as a starter in other ferments – anywhere where I need a starter.

You might also like:

Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

Sourdough Oatcakes

How to Make Fermented Oats

I make 100% wholegrain sourdough rye loaves in my kitchen every week. The flavour is deep, rich and tangy and the breads – which I can slice and make into sandwiches – are always finished too quickly! That’s where these sourdough rye crackers, made again with 100% wholegrain rye flour, save the day. I can make up a batch at the weekend and they will keep all week, filling holes in my families nutrient-dense food when they are needed.

Simple ingredients

The recipe is deceptively simple. It can be made with a fresh sourdough starter or with sourdough discard. Aside from the flour and starter, all your need is a bit of fat and some salt/flavourings.

For the crackers you see in this post, I used rye flour that I freshly-milled at home using rye berries from Grand Teton Ancient Grains. Freshly-milled flour is the icing on the cake when it comes to these crackers, but they can easily be made with pre-milled wholegrain rye flour too.

By hand or food processor

I mix the dough by hand. It’s not difficult and I’ll walk you through the steps. If you prefer to use a food processor, it’s even quicker!

I cut these into rounds using a 3-inch (7.6cm) cookie cutter. There’s no need for you to do this though, you can score the dough manually into squares before cooking or even bake as one whole sheet of cracker (it’s fun to break this by hand when it’s crispy!)

Wholegrain Rye Sourdough Crackers Recipe

• Makes: 28-30 3-inch crackers
• Prep time: 25 minutes (plus overnight rest)
• Baking time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

• 100 g (approx 1 cup) wholegrain rye flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• 50 g lard (can be substituted with butter or olive oil)
• 100 g (approx half cup) sourdough starter, can be discard
• 1- 4 tbsp water, if needed

Method:

• In a bowl, mix the wholegrain rye flour, salt and caraway seeds.
• Measure in the lard (or butter) chopping it into small pieces as you do so.
• Using your fingers, rub the fat into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Measure in the sourdough starter (or discard), mix this in well – the dough should start to come together as you do so.
• Depending on the hydration of your sourdough starter, your dough may need more water to adhere together well. You want your dough a little sticky, this way it’ll crack less when you roll it out. Make a judgement and add more water if necessary. (When I make these crackers using freshly-ground rye and my 70% hydration wholegrain rye sourdough starter, I generally need to add 2-4 tablespoons of water to get a good dough.)
• Bring the dough together into a ball and wrap it or place it inside a sealed container before putting it in the fridge overnight.
• The next day, when you’re ready to make the crackers, preheat your oven to 180°C/375°F.
• Liberally coat your work surface and rolling pin with wholegrain rye flour.
• Uncover your dough and, using a knife, chop it in half.

• Gently work the first half into a ball, place it on your floured work surface and, using your palm, push it down into a circle.
• Sprinkle the top of the circle with wholegrain rye flour and roll the dough out. You are aiming for a thickness of 2 mm or under. Turn the dough often and liberally apply extra flour to avoid it sticking to your surface or your pin.
• When the dough has a thickness of 2 mm or under cut circles of cracker out from it and place them on a baking sheet/sheet pan.

• Gather up the offcuts, add them to the second half of the dough and repeat the process until you have used all of your dough.
• Bake the crackers act 180°C/375°F for approximately 12 minutes. Close to the end of the time, keep a careful eye on the crackers, removing the ones from the edge of the sheet pan if they start to look as if they will burn.
• Remove the crackers to a cooling rack and allow them to come to room temperature before enjoying.

FAQS

How should I store these rye sourdough crackers?

Because of their thinness, these crackers are dry. They will store well in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

How do you like to eat these sourdough rye crackers?

It’s hard to resist eating them straight from the cooling rack! Thankfully, making a batch of 30, there’s usually loads left over after this. They are great spread with butter, eaten with cream cheese or as a simple side to a salad. I love the flavour of avocado with rye, so will often top these crackers with sliced avocado or avocado mashed with olive oil.

What’s the best fat to use in these crackers?

I like to use lard, which I home render, for these crackers. You can easily substitute unsalted butter.

Can I use olive oil instead of lard/butter to make these rye sourdough crackers?

Yes, olive oil is possible. If you’d like to use it and it at the same time as a sourdough starter.

Do these crackers work with freshly-milled rye flour?

Yes, I make them with freshly-milled rye flour ground in my counter-top Mockmill. If you don’t have one of these, shop-bought wholegrain rye flour works well.

Can I use sourdough discard to make these crackers?

Yes, these crackers work with sourdough discard as well as fresh sourdough starter. Your starter does not need to be wholegrain rye – you could use a spelt, wheat or gluten-free starter with the crackers.

Do I need to/can I roll these crackers out using parchment/greaseproof paper?

Parchment/greaseproof paper can be used instead of the flour to create a surface upon which to roll out the dough. If you then struggle to move the crackers from this, you can lift the entire sheet of paper onto your baking sheet/tray. I prefer to use rye flour to stop the dough from sticking to my surface or pin as it is simpler.

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I am used to baking with ancient grains. I have cupboards full of non-wheat cereals: spelt, rye, buckwheat, millet, einkorn…I bake with them all every week. But, up until recently, I’d always been a bit daunted by baking with emmer. I’d heard that it was difficult to handle, that it made a dough that felt like wet sand and that it wouldn’t rise.

And so, when I was gifted a big bag of emmer by regenerative, organic farm Grand Teton Ancient Grains, I knew it was time to take on the challenge of creating a good sourdough emmer loaf.

At first, I tried the same techniques I use for spelt. I’m good with spelt (I’ve written a book on it). But my spelt recipes didn’t work with emmer. I could make a passable loaf using the same techniques I use with spelt, but the dough was so sticky and the rise I was able to obtain was not great.

I knew I had to try a different approach. After failed attempts with autolysing the flour (that is mixing flour and water and leaving it overnight to ‘settle’) and failed attempts at intensive kneading, I decided to turn to the techniques that I use to make sourdough rye bread.

Using these techniques, designed for the low-gluten rye grain, was a revelation with emmer. The loaves bloomed – the mixing was a dream and they rose well in the oven.

Tasting this sourdough loaf made with emmer was a revelation. The flavour is like nothing else; it is incredibly sweet and also fragrant and nutty. It leaves your mouth happy in a way that I’ve not experienced with other ancient grains.

As you might guess, this loaf is now regular part of my ancient grains sourdough baking!

If, in the past, you’ve tried and failed to make a sourdough loaf with emmer or you’ve read that it’s a difficult grain to handle in breadmaking, this recipe will dispel all your fears. It’s simple, it’s foolproof and it makes the most amazingly flavoured ancient grain sourdough.

First of all, let’s dive a little bit into emmer:

What is emmer?

Emmer is an ancient grain, that is, a cereal grain that has been used for thousands of years and comes to us, in the modern era, virtually unchanged genetically.

It is much lower in gluten than wheat, and, as an ancient grain, many people who have problems with wheat find they are able to digest emmer – especially when it’s made into sourdough – without problems.

For answers to more questions about emmer, including its similarities to and differences from other ancient grains, see my FAQ section below.

Is emmer good for sourdough?

Yes, emmer makes the most amazingly-flavoured sourdough. It is not, however, easily to get good results from emmer if you apply the same bread-making techniques that would be applied to wheat. A different process is needed. To get good results from emmer, I found it best to employ the same techniques I use when making rye bread – that is no kneading, a pre-ferment and a very high-hydration dough. When treated this way emmer makes a glorious sourdough bread with flavour that is unbeatable. My recipe will show you how!

The practical stuff:

This bread needs to be started the night before you wish to bake it. At that time, you create a pre-ferment along with soaking the sunflower seeds. Both of these are left on the counter overnight before mixing the main dough in the morning and baking it around lunchtime.

You will need a loaf pan and ideally it will have a lid. This bread comes out best for me in my 1kg/2lb Emile Henry ceramic loaf pan. If you don’t have a lid you can improvise one by tenting your pan with aluminium foil.

I make this loaf using emmer berries from ancientgrains.com, ground at home in my Mockmill. If you are in the UK you can source whole emmer grains from Hodmedods. If you don’t have a mill at home, using pre-ground emmer flour for work fine

Although this bread is 100% wholegrain emmer flour, it will work with sourdough starter made of any flour. I would not be without my rye sourdough starter (find advice on how to create one of these here).

Seeded Wholegrain Emmer Sourdough

Ingredients:

For the pre-ferment:

230g wholegrain emmer flour

230g water

45g sourdough starter (can be any grain)

For the main dough:

320g wholegrain emmer flour

9g salt

120g water

100g pre-soaked sunflower seeds

Method:

The night before you want to bake:

The sunflower seeds need to be soaked:

• Put them into a bowl and cover them with ample water, before leaving them on the counter overnight.

Make the pre-ferment:

• Combine the water and sourdough starter, mixing well. Stir this mixture into the flour.
• Clean the sides of the bowl and flatten the top of the mixture with wet spatula.
• Cover the bowl tightly with a plate or some clingfilm/plastic wrap.
• Leave this mix overnight in a warm place – when I created this loaf the daytime temperature of my house was 24C/68F; try to find a space that’s somewhere between 20C/68F and 24C/75F.

The morning of the bake:

• Retrieve the mixture that’s been pre-fermenting overnight. It should be visibly expanded and smell fermented The bowl should sound hollow when you knock the side of it and you may also see tiny pin holes on the top of the surface. If you’re unsure whether the mix is ready, you can dig a spoon into it – you should find honeycomb-style network of holes. If you are in any doubt that the mixture is ready, return it to your warm place and check it again in an hour or two.
• When you are ready to proceed, drain and rinse the sunflower seeds, before pouring them into the bowl that contains the pre-ferment.
• Add the water to this and stir until well combined.
• Stir the salt into the flour.
• Add the flour/salt to the liquidy pre-ferment, stirring until there is no loose flour and the mixture is well combined.
• Using a wet spatula, clean down the sides of the bowl before pressing down and smoothing the top of the dough.
• Cover the bowl tightly with a plate or clingfilm/plastic wrap.

• Leave in a warm place to ferment. In my kitchen, at 24C/75F, I leave this two hours.
• Prepare a loaf pan for the bread, greasing and flowering the inside.
• When the dough is ready (it will be bigger, smell active, and be airy) it’s time to get it into the pan. I find the best way to do this is to use a wet spatula and scoop portions of the dough out at a time, dropping them into my pan. Once I have all the dough, I wet my spatula again and shape/smooth the top of the loaf.
• Cover the loaf pan. If your pan doesn’t have a lid you can tent the pan with aluminium foil.
• Leave in a warm place to ferment. In my kitchen, 24C/75F, I leave this for an hour and a half.

• About 20 minutes before you judge the bread to be ready, preheat your oven to 210C/410C.
• When the loaf is ready (it will be bigger and may have tiny pin holes on the surface), ensure the lid is well fitting and place inside your preheated oven.
• Cook the bread at 210C/410F for 25 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 190C/375F. My loaf (cooked in a Emile Henry ceramic baker) takes a further 30 minutes at this temperature.
• The bread will be done when it registers 95C/200F at its centre with a probe thermometer. If you don’t have one of these, you can judge doneness based on the colour of the crust and the loaf sounding hollow when you tap it on the bottom.
• Remove the bread from its pan to a cooling rack and leave it to cool completely before cutting.

This seeded wholegrain emmer sourdough will keep at least four or five days in a bread bag or tin. If you are used to spelt loaves going stale after two or three days, you will be pleasantly surprised at the keeping qualities of emmer.

FAQs

What’s the difference between emmer and spelt?

Both emmer and spelt are ancient grains. They both have wheat-like qualities (as does their sister ancient grain, einkorn). Their similarities are shown by what the Italians call them. In Italian, einkorn, emmer and spelt are all part of the ‘farro’ family; einkorn is ‘farro monococco’, emmer is ‘farro dicocco’ and spelt is ‘farro spelta’. Emmer is genetically more complex than einkorn but simpler than simpler than spelt.

From the bakers point of view, emmer handles very differently to spelt. It stretches much more, but with its lower gluten content it is harder to use the methods of conventional wheat bread-making. This is why my recipe uses the techniques I would normally apply to very low-gluten doughs, such as those made with rye.

Does emmer contain gluten?

Yes, emmer does contain gluten. Therefore if you are coeliac you shouldn’t eat it. If, however, you have non-specific gluten intolerance you may find, as others do, that eating sourdough made with ancient grains such as emmer does not cause you problems.

What’s the difference between wheat and emmer?

Emmer is an ancient grain, a cereal that our ancestors have been using for thousands of years. Modern wheat that we buy in shops today is a product of an intensive selective breeding programme in the 1960s. This was designed to increase wheat yield, with no concern for flavour or health benefits. When you choose to bake with emmer you are choosing a grain that has sustained ancestors for many years and has not been messed with as has modern wheat.

You might also like:

5 Reasons to Bake With Ancient Grains

All About Spelt Sourdough (podcast episode)

How to Make Sourdough Rye Bread From Scratch

Thank you so much to Grand Teton Ancient Grains for sponsoring this post, allowing me to develop, test and write up this recipe.

Øllebrød is my new favourite breakfast! Who would’ve believed that such a complex-flavoured, adaptable, moreish dish could come from the combination of some stale rye bread and half a can of ale?! Pair it with a few flavourings (which I’ll share with you below) it’s like creating magic in your breakfast bowl.

What is Øllebrød?

Øllebrød is a oatmeal-style dish from Denmark that pairs previously-baked rye bread with beer to create a warm and hearty porridge. The earliest references to it are from the Middle Ages and, in its traditional form, it was a simple, frugal dish that provided nourishment from readily-available staples.

Why bread and beer?

Before industrialisation, communities depended on the crops that grew around them. Rye was a grain that worked well in Denmark, hence it was used to make bread. As firing an oven is quite an expense, this bread was often made in large batches and designed to be kept. As these breads aged, creative home cooks found ways to bring them to life, including this delicious porridge øllebrød.

 With bread-making comes beer-making – providing both was an unquestionable part of the household duties of women for centuries. And if we go back beyond a couple of hundred years, beer (or ale) was a day-to-day drink; given to the whole family at meals.

Bread and beer would have been part of our ancestors lives. Combining them into a daily dish just made sense.

A traditional version:

I first read about øllebrød in Alex Hely-Hutchinson’s book 26 Grains. Her version, like many of the øllebrød recipes you’ll find online, modernises the dish, leaving out the beer and adding sweeteners, fruit and spices. Whilst øllebrød does taste good this way, I love adding beer – it gives the dish a deep, rich flavour that is so distinctively different.

In this recipe, half of the liquid used is beer (I’ve used a stout as the flavours combine so well, but you could use any beer). To balance the flavours, I’ve also used a very small amount of sweetener. Taste your own øllebrød before it’s done and add more if you prefer it sweeter.

I make 100% wholegrain rye sourdough rye bread at home every week (my methods are in my course Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics) and use the last slices of the loaf to make øllebrød. Sometimes, though, I am so keen to have the porridge that I’ll use fresh bread, or even make a loaf especially. It’s not important whether your bread is old or new, the flavour will be good with both.

You could use shop-bought rye bread, but, as with all industrially-made foods, the flavour won’t be as special.

My favourite spices and flavourings are below, but there are so many options to chose from. Using my suggestions and your imagination, you can make the dish a different experience every time.

Øllebrød needs to be started the night before you want to eat it by soaking the bread in beer and water. I suggest doing this in the saucepan that you intend to cook it in, saving washing up!

Traditional Danish Øllebrød

Serves: 3

Time to soak: overnight

Time to cook: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

250g rye bread, sourdough is best

300g stout (or any beer/ale)

300g water

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp dark sugar

Spices/flavourings (I often change these up, but like this combination):

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp vanilla seeds

Zest of 1/3 of a lemon (c.1/2 tsp)

You could also experiment with orange zest/juice, caraway, cardamom, star anise and more!

Method:

The night before you want to eat øllebrød:

• Break the bread into chunks around 2 cms and place them in a saucepan.
• Pour over the beer and the water and stir to combine.
• Cover and leave on the counter overnight.

In the morning:

• Add the salt, sugar and spices to the bread mixture.
• Put the pan onto the stove on a medium-high heat, stirring frequently until you start to see it bubble.
• Turn the heat down to low and cook for 20 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid it sticking to the bottom of your pan.
• When the porridge is smooth, taste it for seasoning, adding more salt, sweetener and/or spices if you would like.
• Serve into bowls, add any desired toppings and eat straight away.

Serving suggestions:

• Øllebrød is great served simply with crushed nuts/seeds and some yogurt or cream (or my favourite, ghee!)
• If you’d like to, toasting nuts before topping øllebrød with them brings more flavour.
• Fresh, seasonal fruit is a nice option.
• For a special treat you could add honey or maple syrup; my son likes it if I infuse cardamom pods for 15 minutes in a 50/50 warmed honey/water solution and pour that over the top of his øllebrød.

FAQs

Can I use new rye bread?

Yes, I often use freshly-made rye bread to make øllebrød. I ends up being slightly more liquidy than if I’d used stale, dry bread, but you can extend the cooking period if you prefer it thicker.

Can I use standard rye?

Yes, you don’t have to use home-made sourdough rye. You can use yeasted rye or shop-bought rye bread. Bread with seeds in will work too, but your porridge will not be as smooth as a non-seeded loaf.

Can I use other breads?

Yes, I often make øllebrød with sourdough spelt bread. When I do this, I prefer to replace the beer with cider. The flavour is wonderful!

Do I have to use alcohol?

No! Øllebrød was traditionally made with beer, but you could soak the bread in water instead. A lot of modern recipes do this.

Can I use non-alcoholic beer?

Yes! Non alcoholic stout or beer works well for this recipes.

I don’t like stout, can I use another beer?

Yes, you can use any type of beer, ale, cider (even home-brewed ancestral ale!). The flavour will change based on the type of drink you use.

What other flavourings go well with øllebrød?

I have used lemon zest, cinnamon and vanilla in the recipe, but often use other spices. Caraway works very well with the deep rye flavours, as does star anise and cardamom. Lots of recipes online use orange juice and zest.

You might also like:

Russian Bread Kvass

Wholegrain Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics (podcast episode)

How to Make Fermented Oats

And, if you want to get my go-to recipe for 100% wholegrain rye sourdough bread, plus tips for making sourdough rye at home, go here.

The healthy, tasty, gluten-free oat grain can be fermented into a myriad of dishes, including porridges, jellies, oat cakes, pancakes and ovened bakes. This free training will share how and give you recipes to create in your own kitchen!

There’s nothing like a breakfast of warm oats on a cold winter day. It’s like a hug in a bowl, and one you know will keep you going until lunch.

But have you tried making your morning oats with fermented oats?

And how about making it zero-waste and adding a probiotic oat drink on the side?

Fermenting oats, zero-waste and probiotic – they all sound so modern you might think they were part of the latest sustainability or health drive. But you’d be wrong. The Scots have been fermenting their oats into two products – a creamy porridge called sowans and a probiotic drink called swats – for centuries!

How it started

The Romans brought the oat grain to Scotland and, seeing that it was perfect for the northern climate and Scottish soil, it soon took hold. Most households back then were subsistence farms who, along with growing their own produce and raising animals, also grew oats. After harvest, they’d send their prized oat grain to the local mill.

Once the oats were ground, they’d get two sacks back from the miller: one sack contained their ground oats and the other sack was full of ‘waste’ – all the bits that had come loose from the grain kernels during the milling process.

The contents of this second sack had a special name: sids. It would have been a dusty mixture of husks (the very outside part of the grain, which protects it), hulls (the bran of the grain) and tiny white crumbs from the body of the oat grain that’d got stuck to the hulls and escaped the mill-stone’s power. Here’s how it looked:

The Scots had traditional ways to use their ground oats; oat cakes being a great example. But they also had a traditional way of using the bag of left-over oat ‘waste’, and that was to ferment it!

Let’s start with how to lacto-ferment oats…

Fermenting rolled oats is quite simple. Put your oats in a bowl, add water and a bacteria-rich starter culture (yogurt, kefir, sourdough starter etc.), stir and wait. The bacteria will start to predigest the compounds in the grain, potentially harmful plant toxins will be neutralised and beautiful fermented flavours will start to develop. (If you want to learn how to do this, check out my video Healthy, Fermented Oats).

The Scots’ extreme oat fermentation!

The Scots took their oat fermentation a step further – wild fermenting the bag of ‘waste’ returned to them by the mill.

The white starchy ‘crumbs’ from the inside of the grain provided the food for the bacteria and yeasts naturally present on the broken pieces of hull/husk left behind after milling. No starter culture was needed, the only addition being water.

And what they got…

After up to two weeks of fermentation, the Scots strained the husk/hull pieces from the fermented mixture and were left with the two foods: Sowans, a creamy porridge and Swats, a tangy drink:

Both were health foods. The sowans because the fermentation process had not only neutralised plant toxins and pre-digested many of the starches, but it had also had the harder-to-digest bran fibre strained out. The swats because, drunk as is, it was full of probiotic bacteria.

And all this, from ‘waste’?!

How we can recreate this in our kitchen

Re-creating sowans and swats in our modern-day kitchens, where we are far more likely to buy in our oats than grow them in our backyard, requires some ingenuity, but is worth the effort.

I’ve been fermenting oat grain into sowans and swats regularly for many years in my home. I love the liquid swats gently heated with spices and my 11-year old son adores the smooth, ice-cream-like texture of the sowans as his morning porridge.

Most often, I use a roller mill to make the grain into porridge oats and ‘waste’ crumbs, but I’ve also often made sowans and swats by pulverising oat groats in my blender or with oat flour.

If you’re interested in taking your oat fermentation to the next level and stepping into the shoes of a Scot a few hundred years ago, check out my course, Sowans: The Scottish Oat Ferment. In it, I’ll guide you through how to make the ferment with whatever equipment you have in your kitchen.

Oatmeal: A Transatlantic Linguistic Difference

A discussion on the difference between rolled oats and oatmeal must start with a definition of the word oatmeal:

In American English, the word oatmeal means a bowl of cooked oats, usually served as breakfast. (In British English, this is called porridge.)

In British English, the word oatmeal means oats that have been stone-ground into a coarse flour.

So, in American English, if you asked for a bowl of oatmeal, you’d be handed a steaming breakfast dish, perhaps topped with fruit and nuts.

But in British English, if you asked for a bowl of oatmeal, you’d be handed a raw ingredient; something that you could use to create your breakfast (which would be called porridge) with.

The Difference between Rolled Oats and Oatmeal

So now we know that, in British-English, oatmeal is not a finished dish but an ingredient to create breakfast with, let’s define the difference between this form of oats and rolled oats.

Oatmeal is…

Oatmeal, in the British English definition, is a product made by stone-grinding oat grains. This process is, literally, squashing the grains between two stones until they break. Once ground, the resulting ‘meal’ is separated into different sizes using sieves. We, as cooks, can then purchase fine oatmeal, medium oatmeal and coarse (often called pinhead) oatmeal.

Rolled oats are…

Rolled oats, which have the same name in both the USA and the UK, are made by passing oat grains through steel rollers to flatten them. Like oatmeal, we can buy rolled oats in different sizes. Large rolled oats are made by rolling whole oat grains. Smaller rolled oats are made by rolling broken oat grains.

Which is Older, Oatmeal or Rolled Oats?

Oatmeal, A Potted History

Our ancestors have been grinding oats into oatmeal for centuries. At first, this was done with two stones. One of these was static, often with a concave top to hold the grain, the other was palm-sized and, being held in the hand, worked the grain to crush it.

From the first century onward, this technology was replaced by the quern – a manually-turned set of two large circular stones – which dominated oatmeal-making for centuries. Although watermills were also prevalent in the UK, one researcher estimated that there were still 2000 querns in Scotland in 1900 (1).

Fast forward to our modern world, and oatmeal is made in large, industrial stone mills. It comes in fine, medium and coarse (sometimes called pinhead) grades.

When Did Rolled Oats Come In?

A machine to roll oats was invented in 1877. The oat grains, once flattened, were more visually appealing than oatmeal and easier to cook. Quaker, then a very young company, saw an opportunity to market rolled oats as a breakfast cereal to Americans (who at that stage did not eat breakfast cereals as we know them today).

Quaker registered the first trademark for a breakfast cereal (which they called oatmeal) and in 1882, launched a ground-breaking marketing campaign that included running the first national magazine adverts for a breakfast cereal and delivering free trial-size samples of Quaker oats door-to-door.

As we know, their oat marketing campaign paid off: Quaker were bought by Pepsi in 2001 for $14 billion and rolled oats are now ubiquitous!

What’s the difference between rolled oats and oatmeal in my kitchen?

Both rolled oats and oatmeal can be made into a hot breakfast cereal (called, confusingly, oatmeal if you’re eating it in the US and porridge if you’re eating it in the UK!)

If you’re making oatmeal/porridge with rolled oats, the smaller the rolled oats are the less time they will take to cook. Cooking ‘old-fashioned’ oats in the US (which are called jumbo oats in the UK) takes around 10 minutes whereas cooking ‘instant’ oats (often called small oats in the UK) takes just a few minutes.

If you are making oatmeal/porridge with oatmeal (ie stone-ground oats), it’s best to use medium oatmeal. I like to soak it overnight in water. After having done this it takes 10 minutes to cook. If I’m unable to soak it overnight, I usually give it an extra 5 minutes cooking time.

What is oatmeal/porridge made with oatmeal like?

I am a porridge fan so my answer is ‘delicious!’. Using medium oatmeal gives the resulting dish more of a ‘bite’ than using instant oats. It’s often tastier too. This is because oatmeal is less processed than rolled oats. All oats (except the ‘naked’ variety) have been steam-heated before they get to our kitchens, but rolled oats are steam-heated twice. In my opinion that means they are often less flavourful than oatmeal.

How can I create porridge like a Scot?!

Our Scottish ancestors would likely not recognise the bowls of steaming oats that we have at our breakfast tables today, neither in the preparation or how they are served. If you want to make porridge like a Scot, here is my advice:

1/ Use medium oatmeal (see below for how to access/make this)

2/ Bring a pot of water to the boil then turn it down to a strong simmer. Whilst stirring with a wooden spoon (or, if you can get one, a spurtle, the traditional Scottish porridge-stirring tool) with one hand, sprinkle oatmeal into the water with your other hand (be careful not to burn yourself on the steam!).

3/ When you have a good consistency (not too thick, as it will thicken up as you cook further), turn the heat down low, rest a lid on the saucepan and cook for a further 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4/Just before serving, stir in a good quantity of the best quality salt you can find.

5/ To serve traditionally, pour the porridge into a wooden bowl and use a wooden spoon. Then to eat as the Scots did, set a small container of cold cream to one side. Take a spoonful of your hot porridge and dip it into the cold cream. Enjoy!

You might also like:

How to Roll Oats at Home (& 3 Good Reasons to Do It!)

How to Make Fermented Oats

How to Make Stone-Ground Oats (Oatmeal) in the Mockmill

To access oatmeal/stone-ground oats outside the UK, search local suppliers. In the US, Bob’s Red Mill sells oatmeal branded as ‘Scottish Oatmeal’.

(1) Oats, Their Cultivation and Use from Ancient Times to the Present Day, William M Findlay, 1956, Oliver and Boyd.

Sourdough rye breads are a staple in my kitchen, made every week. I taught myself the process over a decade ago in order to feed my husband, who has a wheat intolerance. But once I’d tasted home-made sourdough rye myself, I was hooked! Since then I’ve gone on to share my love of baking rye with readers here, on my podcast and with hundreds of students in my course Sourdough Rye Bread: Mastering the Basics.

Why make sourdough rye bread?

I make sourdough rye bread because I love its flavour. But rye has so many more reasons to recommend it:

• Rye is three times lower in gluten than wheat, and the gluten it does contain is of a different nature. This means that those of us who struggle with gluten can often enjoy rye without issues.
• Rye has the highest fibre of all the grains we commonly use in our kitchens.
• Rye is so nutritious – as well as all that fibre it is high in B vitamins and minerals.

Why use wholegrain rye?

All of my sourdough rye breads are made with wholegrain rye. Here’s why I love to use it:

• Including the bran brings so much flavour to the bread; much of the infamous depth of rye (think pumpernickel, rugbrod and all of those German/Eastern European breads) comes from the bran.
• By using the whole grain we are ensuring our cooking is zero waste.
• Most of the fibre content of grains is in the bran; when we include that we get all of the nutrition.

Why make sourdough?

• By using a home-cultured starter (rather than buying a factory-produced yeast) we bring the entire bread-making process into our own kitchens. This is part of taking a stand against our our industrial food system.
• Sourdough brings such wonderful flavours to bread. For rye in particular, the acidity of sourdough matches the robustness of the grain in a wonderful way, creating flavour-heaven!
• In the sourdough process, complex starches are predigested, meaning your tummy has to do less work when it comes to the eating.

What’s important to know about making rye bread

If you’re in the habit of making wheat bread, it’s important to understand that rye is different. Understanding the differences between wheat and rye, when it comes to breadmaking, puts you in a strong position to create wonderful sourdough rye breads. Here’s how I explain it, simply:

Breadmaking with wheat:

When in contact with water, wheat flour produces gluten. This gluten (assisted by kneading) creates a net-like mesh network which traps gases during the fermentation, rising the bread and creating its crumb.

Breadmaking with rye:

When in contact with water, rye flour produces complex carbohydrates called pentosans. These pentosans create a thick starchy gel which traps gases during fermentation, rising the bread and creating its crumb.

At the same time, the rye bread-making process also creates an enzyme called amylase. Amylase breaks down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars. If this happens in your bread, the thick, starchy gel will not be formed and your rye bread will not rise. Amylase cannot survive in an acidic environment hence an important part of the process of making rye bread is to acidify the dough.

You can see me explaining the differences between these two bread-making processes here.

How To Make Sourdough Rye Bread From Scratch

Over years of making 100% wholegrain sourdough rye, I’ve learnt that there are six rules – each of them vital to ending up with a risen, sliceable, delicious bread. They’re important and I want to share them with you here. If you’d like to go straight to my recipe, it’s available as part of my Beginner’s Guide to Wholegrain Rye Sourdough, which you can get, in your inbox, by entering your details below:

1 – Have a strong starter

Having a strong sourdough starter is a vital part of any sourdough bread process.

I recommend making your sourdough starter with wholegrain rye flour, because:

• Rye is a very active flour, naturally containing lots of microbes that will super-charge your ferment.
• Rye hydrates differently to wheat and that results in a sourdough starter that is much easier to maintain (you won’t need to refresh it daily; I attend to mine once a week).

How to switch an existing wheat sourdough starter to rye:

It’s easy to switch an existing wheat flour starter to wholegrain rye. To do this simply start refreshing your sourdough starter with wholegrain rye flour instead of your usual wheat flour. After having done this four or five times they’ll be virtually no wheat flour left in your starter.

If you need help with your sourdough starter, read my blog article explaining how to create and maintain a rye sourdough starter, take a look at my visual guide to sourdough starters or take my pay-what-you-can video course.

If you are concerned about the strength of your sourdough starter, don’t use it to make bread. Be patient and keep working on it until you can see it rising well and consistently.

2 – Use a pre-ferment

To make a good sourdough rye bread utilise a pre-ferment. This helps acidify the dough enough to stop amylase destroying your crumb!

A pre-ferment, simply put, is a very big starter!

With a wheat bread, you mix sourdough starter into your dough. Using a rye pre-ferment, you instead take a sizeable portion of the total flour (usually around 30%), mix it with the sourdough starter and leave it to ferment (usually for 12 hours). When ready, this bubbly pre-ferment is mixed into the remaining ingredients.

3 – Hydrate your loaf well

Wholegrain rye flour is thirsty. Where you may be used to making sourdough breads using a 50 to 60% hydration (a water weight of 50 to 60% of the total flour weight), rye will need more. I often make wholegrain rye bread at a 100% hydration (the same weight of water as flour).

4 – Watch the proof

Once you’ve mixed your active pre-ferment into your remaining ingredients, there’s nothing more to do. Rye bread doesn’t take long to bulk ferment or proof. Make sure you watch the fermentation – it is very easy to leave rye bread too long. Look for a small increase in volume and pinprick holes beginning to appear on the surface of the dough.

5 – Use a baker and cover the bread in the oven

Rye bakes much better in a bread baker – by that I mean a container of metal, ceramic or glass. Having sides to climb up will help your bread rise and give it a much more pleasing aesthetic. The added bonus here is that, when using a tin of some form, there is no need for you to worry about shaping the bread!

Make sure that you cover the baker whilst the bread is in the oven. If your tin does not have a lid you can craft one from aluminium foil.

6 – Let your bread cool before you enjoy it!

Once your rye bread is cooked (I like to see an internal temperature of 95C/200F or above) remove it from the tin and leave it to cool completely before cutting. Rye bread continues to form its crumb whilst cooling and you will spoil it by trying to cut it while it’s still hot. If you can, wait even longer; rye bread improves when left for a day or two after baking.

Frequently-Asked Questions:

How do the timings work for this sourdough rye bread method?

Here’s how I make rye bread in my kitchen:

The evening before I want to bake I create a pre-ferment from my active sourdough starter, leaving it to ferment overnight.

The next morning I retrieve the bubbling pre-ferment and mix it into the rest of my ingredients.

I watch this bulk fermentation carefully and, when it is ready, I put the dough into a pan.

I watch the proofing carefully and, when it is ready, I bake the loaf. This is usually around lunchtime.

I leave this loaf to cool fully, not usually cutting it until the next day.

Hence, if I want to bread for lunch on Monday, I begin it with the pre-ferment on Saturday evening, baking it on Sunday.

How should I store my sourdough rye bread?

Sourdough rye bread ages much better than bread made of other grains. In my experience its flavour improves, when left, for up to 5 days. When first cooked, I leave my bread to fully cool on a cooling rack. After the first slicing, I turn it, crumb down, to stand on my breadboard. After this I move it to a metal bread tin which has small air holes and a wooden lid. A fabric bread bag or paper bag is also a good option.

Does sourdough rye bread freeze?

Yes! Sourdough rye bread freezes much better than bread made of other grains. I often cut loaves and freeze one half for weeks at a time or make two loaves in one go, saving one in the freezer for later. Before placing in the freezer, I bag the loaves in a double layer and ensure I expel all the air before closing.

Can I proof my sourdough rye bread in the fridge?

Yes, this is possible. Sometimes, I will mix the pre-ferment into my remaining ingredients in the evening and then immediately place the dough into my fridge. In the morning I remove the dough from the fridge, place it in the pan to proof and bake mid-morning.

Is rye gluten-free?

No, rye is not gluten-free but it contains much less gluten than wheat and the gluten it contains is of a different structure. This means that often, people who have problems with digesting wheat can enjoy rye without issues, especially when it is baked into sourdough. This is what happened to my husband – when I met him 15 years ago he could not eat bread due to a wheat allergy, now he eats sourdough rye bread almost daily without any side-effects.

Can I grind my own flour?

Yes, most definitely, and your bread will be even more incredible if you do! When I started making rye breads I used shop-bought wholegrain rye flour. Some time into my journey, I invested in a Mockmill and I now grind all my wholegrain rye flour from rye berries minutes before I make bread. It is a beautiful process and enhances the flavour (and by enjoyment) of my breads greatly.

My sourdough starter isn’t strong, what can I do?

Keep working on it. There is a lot of information out there on creating sourdough starters and it can be overwhelming. My advice is to find one method/teacher and follow their method exclusively. If you would like my guidance you can read How to Create a Sourdough Starter, follow my visual guide on starters, access my pay-as-you-can video course How to Create and Maintain a Rye Sourdough Starter, and for $5, I have a comprehensive set of guidance in 10 Tips for Creating and Maintaining a Sourdough Starter over at The Fermentation School.

Do I need to refresh my starter the night before I make bread?

If you want your starter to be the most active it can be, it’s best to refresh it 12 hours before you make the pre-ferment. I’ve found that, my starter, after a decade of care, does not need this and I use sourdough starter straight from the fridge when making my pre-ferment.

I want to start now! Can I get your assistance in making wholegrain sourdough rye bread?

Yes. You can start by downloading my free 30-page guide, Baking with Ancient Grains, which includes a comprehensive recipe for sourdough rye bread. My podcast episode on rye sourdough bread will also help. You can have me guide you, virtually through the whole process in my course Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics and if you’d like 1:1 time, there’s the option of Sourdough mentoring – I currently offer two packages, a get-going and a trouble-shooting.

To get your copy of The Beginner’s Guide to Wholegrain Rye Sourdough Bread enter you details below:

You might also like:

Differences Between Bread-Making With Wheat And Rye

Ancestral Kitchen Podcast: Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering the Basics

“I can’t eat wheat bread, it just doesn’t agree with me.”

How many times have you heard this? 

Maybe it’s you that struggles with ‘normal’ bread, or maybe your partner or friend. There are so many of us. Because, these days, it’s not just celiacs who have problems with wheat. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is staggeringly-prevalent in our modern age.

And it can be devastating, because, seriously, bread rocks! It’s a huge part of our society’s food culture; it’s something we can share, keep, create a quick meal with and that can satisfy us at such a deep level. Good bread is the stuff of life.

If it’s you or one of your loved ones that can’t tolerate wheat and its gluten, don’t despair. Before you give up ever eating decent bread again and swear to go gluten-free, give rye sourdough bread a go.

Why rye sourdough bread is a good option

Rye gluten is not equal to wheat gluten

To start with rye is much lower in gluten; a recent study showed it as having three times less gluten than wheat. In addition to this, the gluten in rye has a different chemical composition to the gluten in wheat.

This is why rye breads do not rise in the same way that breads made with white wheat flour do. It’s gluten that helps trap the air inside a wheat bread. Rye flour just doesn’t have the same level of gluten as wheat flour, and the gluten that it does have doesn’t work in the same way. That means it also may not work in the same way in your body!

Sourdough changes the nutritional profile of bread

The long fermentation involved in the sourdough process breaks down many of the compounds in grains that can cause digestive issues as well as, at the same time, making many more nutrients available for us.

This means that when a slice of sourdough bread hits your digestion, it is literally not the same food as a bread made industrially with commercial yeast. Combine this with the lower and chemically-different gluten in rye and you’re looking at something that your body may just thank you for!

How to make rye sourdough bread in your kitchen

Along with struggling to digest wheat, many people find mastering the sourdough process tough. If you’ve struggled with a wheat sourdough starter or when making wheat sourdough bread, know that using rye is a lot simpler:

Rye: a fuss-free sourdough starter

Making and maintaining a rye sourdough starter is easier than keeping a starter made with wheat flour. Wholegrain rye flour is full of enzymes that encourage and support fermentation and the water-holding capabilities of rye means you can refresh your rye starter less often and give it less attention than it’s wheat counterpart.

No kneading or shaping required

This same ease holds true when it comes to making rye sourdough bread. Rye bread doesn’t need kneading or shaping like wheat does, so even if you’re a beginner at bread-making you’re in with a chance of getting a good result.

Take your pick!

Rye sourdough breads come in all shapes and sizes; they’ve been made by traditional cultures in rye growing regions around the world for centuries. There are dark, heavy breads, that’ll satisfy parts of you that you didn’t know existed. There are everyday sandwich-able ryes that’ll be feeding you all week. And there are deeply-scented spiced breads that’ll wow you with their fragrance and lasting flavour.

Here’s how to learn more:

Bringing rye sourdough bread into your kitchen and life needn’t be intimidating; here are two resources for you:

1/ Read my post How to Make Sourdough Rye Bread From Scratch, which includes access to my go-to recipe, the one I make in my own kitchen every week.

2/ Have a listen to my podcast episode dedicated to rye bread: Rye Sourdough Bread: Mastering The Basics.