Rye coming through: Bread, whiskey makers tinkering with better Kentucky grains

These days when you say rye in Kentucky most people think about whiskey, as they should.

But some farmers, agricultural researchers, environmentalists, brewers, chefs and bakers are trying to broaden the appetite – and with it the market – for rye in Kentucky.

Rye was a regular crop before Prohibition but never regained traction here as a food, or drink, crop.

A little over a decade ago University of Kentucky researchers, some dedicated and adventurous grain farmers and interested non-profits began investigating expanding rye into a cash crop. To do that they needed not just strains of rye that could grow successfully in Kentucky but also a market for it.

The same rye that is good for bourbon, can also be good in other things, explained Bob Perry, a chef who teaches and conducts research at the University of Kentucky. Perry planned a “rye lunch” for the master blender at Maker’s Mark that included a rye risotto that he said was so good it has now entered the regular lineup of the local dishes he and his students prepare.

The risotto is “really nice,” agreed UK grain scientist David Van Sanford, and one of the graduate students working with Van Sanford has developed a tasty rye flatbread. As part of their research, Van Sanford and his students conduct regular “tasting and sensory analysis” to determine how and why Kentucky rye tastes different from rye produced in other regions. “It’s hard and incremental work, he said. “Flavor is an extremely complex trait … genetically, and extremely subjective.”

Still, Van Sanford said, distillers believe they detect “a Kentucky terroir that appears to be unique and pleasant,” referring to the term used to describe the distinct flavor grapes grown in particular soils and regions give to wine. There is also a small but growing interest in using local ryes in brewing as well and in producing malts, which form part of the bases of both whiskeys and beers.

Breads are another matter. Rye has less gluten than wheat and so, without special treatment, “it doesn’t stay together as well,” Perry said. When he includes it in breads, “we’re really using it as a flavoring agent,” with a ratio of one-third rye flour to two-thirds wheat.

“Rye is a very humbling grain,” explained Andy Brown, night baker at Lexington’s Bluegrass Baking Company. Generally, when making rye breads for the bakery he uses about the same rye/wheat mix as Perry. But he experiments a bit more when he’s baking on his own for customers at the Chevy Chase Farmers’ Market where he does offer an all-rye bread for customers who order it in advance.

Rye depends on starchy gel, not gluten, to maintain it’s structure, Brown said, which is why all-rye or rye-dominant breads often become dense and gummy in a process Brown said is called “starch attack.” To avoid this, Brown and other bakers start with something acidic – like yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream – as part of the mixture with rye flour and let it ferment for 18 hours or so. “It’s really a logistical feat,” to make rye bread in quantity, he said.

Finding ways to prepare Kentucky rye is more than just a culinary adventure, it’s a way to create the demand that farmers need to invest in producing rye, which scientists and environmentalists encourage to improve Kentucky soils and water. That’s why Dendrifund, a foundation created through a donation from Brown-Forman to spur cooperative environmental efforts, has invested in encouraging rye production in Kentucky.

A video produced by the “Rye in Kentucky” cooperative project of Dendrifund, the Kentucky Small Grain Growers Association and the American Farmland Trust explains the economic and environmental benefits of diversifying Kentucky grain production through adding rye to the mix. Growing rye close to distilleries would reduce the financial and environmental cost of shipping the grain thousands of miles, cutting the industry’s carbon footprint. Expanding rye production also offers a way to maintain healthier soils on Kentucky farms with less runoff into waterways.