Semifreddi's Odessa Rye

[Mike D.]

To me, this is the only Bay Area rye bread worthy of the name, tasting
of a true sourdough starter, and not drying out right away as so many do.

But a few weeks ago, Whole Foods on Bascom quit carrying it. The only
way to obtain Semifreddi's Odessa Rye in San Jose is by special request
of Lunardi's, according to the representative of Semifreddi's I spoke to
today.

W T F ?

[Peter Lawrence]

Semifreddi's Odessa Rye is made with more wheat flour than rye flour. If
you want a true 100% rye bread you should try Beckmann's Pure Rye bread. It
contains no wheat flour. It's also moist but it's very dense. I don't
think they use rye sour starter though, just regular yeast.

http://www.beckmannsbakery.com/shop/flavor/rye/pure-rye-bread


- Peter

[Steve Pope]

Peter Lawrence <humm...@aol.com> wrote:

>Semifreddi's Odessa Rye is made with more wheat flour than rye flour. If
>you want a true 100% rye bread you should try Beckmann's Pure Rye bread.
>It contains no wheat flour.

How does Arizmendi rank?


S.

[Peter Lawrence]

I haven't had any of their breads yet. I don't recall seeing them in any
South Bay markets, but I might have missed their breads, if they are now
being sold in the South Bay.


- Peter

[evergene]

We stopped in at their Valencia Street location not too long ago and
got a cheesey sort of baguette that was really good, I mean good to
the level of, "If you're walking over to Valencia, pick up one of
those..."

I see from their website that each location is independently run, with
different products, prices, hours, etc.

[Eli the Bearded]

In ba.food, Mike D. <spamtr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> To me, this is the only Bay Area rye bread worthy of the name, tasting
> of a true sourdough starter, and not drying out right away as so many do.

As others have noted, it's not a 100% rye, but I'm partially going to
agree with you. The Odessa rye is a very tasty loaf. Unfortunately, I'm
the only one in this household that likes rye bread, so I don't buy it
often. A whole loaf to myself is a lot of bread, and we usually don't
have space to freeze half a loaf.

Elijah
------
gets 100% rye crackers sometimes, which last longer

[sf]

On Sat, 3 Jan 2015 19:09:22 +0000 (UTC), Eli the Bearded
<*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:

> Unfortunately, I'm
> the only one in this household that likes rye bread, so I don't buy it
> often. A whole loaf to myself is a lot of bread, and we usually don't
> have space to freeze half a loaf.

Arrrr! That's my situation too (including lack of freezer space)!
Hubby doesn't like rye in any form and I don't eat enough bread to
make buying an entire loaf worthwhile.

--
A kitchen without a cook is just a room

[Tim May]

Thanks for this recommendation. I bought some tonight at Deluxe Foods in Aptos.

Beckmann's is a famous Santa Cruz area bakery (along with Golden Sheaf,
Alfaro's, Gayle's, Marie's, and one or two others). I saw from their
Web site which local places carried it, and Deluxe was one of them.
Understand, I'd had the Sourdough before, but generally favored Gayle's
Francese loaves. And the Semifreddi loaves that my local Trader Joe's
carries, but due to transport distance and time, they tend to be dry
and good for only the first day.

As I've been cutting back on carbs in general (Atkins, Paleo,
Mediterranean, whatever), I like rye and pumpernickle sorts of dense
breads for when I _do_ eat bread. This "Pure Rye" is excellent! Very
dense, almost hard to cut (use a sharp knife or, I assume, a serrated
bread knife). Probably good in small quantities, as with picnic-style
eats, pickles, onions, mustard, sauerkraut, etc. Not so great for
sandwiches! (except of the pumpernickle kind).

I'll see how it handles freezing and also just storage at room temperature.

Crispbread of the rye sort is still my usual choice for dips, tuna
salad, etc. (And Wasa, Siljans, Ry-Krisp, etc. literally just shrugs
off a 2-year shelf storage. Great for the Zombie Apocalypse.)


--
Tim May