Hodgson Mill Flour Rye, 5 lb

What can I say. This is whole rye flour. I really have no way of making a comparison. I love Rye bread, and since I have started making my own bread, I decided to give Rye bread a go as well. I didn't realize how hard it would be to find Rye Flour. There aren't that many prominent millers making a rye flour these days, which surprised me. My local grocery store didn't have any, or had tiny, very expensive bags that wouldn't be enough to dust the pans. So I went to Amazon and got this. I can say that it arrived intact, as it was well packaged and wrapped tightly in plastic to prevent the bag from breaking. The flour worked well. My Rye bread was spectacular. I ate two loaves in a few days. It is a very under-appreciated grain. I hope eventually I can source this locally, but until that happens, I will be buying this.

This Rye flour is more course than all purpose flour. It has the same texture as Almond flour of whole wheat flour. It has excellent taste. Remember that Rye has lower protein than All Purpose and especially breast flour. This means it does not rise as well as those do (the protein forms gluten, which makes the flour able to ‘stretch’ without tearing when the CO2 is created by the yeast consuming the starch/sugar). So make sure to blend it with AP or Bread flour for making rye bread. You also want to make sure you knead it for a significant amount of time (kneading helps for gluten). This will never rise like a pure bread flour will, but you can get that great rye bread rise and texture if you take the steps above. Dill seed and caraway seed provide use that classic deli-rye flavor in your bread recipe.

Growing up in the upper Midwest in the 1960s, I got used to seeing rye flour on the shelves at the local supermarket - sometimes several brands of rye flour. Now living on the East Coast, it's remarkable to find any supermarket that offers at least one rye flour brand.Hodgson Mill brand rye flour is perfectly fine for general use in recipes calling for rye flour. I suspect it is a bit courser ground than medium rye flour and it is definitely not dark rye flour, but it can be used in lieu of those types of rye flour with great results.Rye flour seems to have become known as an organic or health food item, with all manner of products of boutique millers/sellers available on-line or in health food stores. It's nice to have at least one brand like Hodgson Mill that can be found either on-line or in better supermarkets that can be used for virtually all rye flour baked products.

The flour is great as always but the packaging does not handle individual shipment. The adhesive of the bag closure fails and the flour leaks significantly. Need to buy a full case to avoid this problem.

Part of the flour I found in the box because the bag was not protected and it was open on top. A strip of tape across the top would have been cheap, easy, and would have avoided the anoyance of having to throw away part of the flour.

Fresh flour is bright and tasty. I keep mine in the fridge since it keeps fresh longer. If you do not use any flour within a few months it will go stale especially if you do not do what you can to keep it fresh.

Typical rye flour. I was surprised that it was fresh tasting since it was purchased on-line. I made some good Rye breads with it. If you need rye flour and can't get it in supermarkets it is a good buy.

The wheat flour in itself is good quality brand. The packaging is the problem. When it came it had a hole in it and leaked thru everything. Need better packaging