Rye Recipes

This sensational blueberry pie has small circles cut out of the rye crust, which not only looks dramatic but also allows moisture to evaporate from the fruit filling as it cooks, deepening the flavor.

Baker Peter Endriss makes his rye with a wild yeast starter that gives the bread a wonderfully tangy and complex flavor and aroma. For home cooks, he suggests using cornichon or pickle juice instead. The idea was inspired by a recipe for Cucumber Pickle Juice Rye Loaf from Dan Lepard, author of The Handmade Loaf.

This recipe from Food & Wine's Justin Chapple makes the most of canned sardines. Chapple prepares a bright herb mayo to spread on rye crisps, then tops them with a cherry tomato salad and good-quality sardines. The juices from the tomatoes soften the rye crisps ever so slightly.

This reimagined Caesar salad substitutes kale for romaine, rye bread for the croutons and tofu for raw egg in the garlicky dressing.

Master baker Lionel Vatinet makes this dense, super-flavorful bread with locally milled rye flour.

This tangy chowder is like a Reuben sandwich on a spoon, with smoky sausage, sauerkraut and rye croutons.

Little slices of party rye are a Southern favorite for tea sandwiches: "You don't see regular rye down here every day," Martha Hall Foose says. If party rye isn't available, use a cookie cutter to create rounds from regular bread slices.

Scandinavians brought the technique of pickling delicately fried seafood (a form of escabeche) to Minnesota and swapped the Midwest's freshwater catch for North Sea herring. Seasoning the fish with vinegar, sugar and spices adds great flavor and firms up the texture; it's an overnight process, so plan ahead.

Thinly sliced, toasted or not, this dense, hearty whole-grain bread is wonderful topped with smoked salmon, sour cream and chopped onions, or with bitter orange marmalade. Allow time for the sponge to sit overnight.

Jerry Traunfeld has been experimenting with rye flour for years; he loves the way it gives dough flavor and body. As these pastries illustrate, he has also been exploring ways to use celery seed in desserts. "It really complements the apple and rye," he says.

These muffins are extremely tender, mildly earthy from the rye flour, and are intensely perfumed with banana. Light or dark rye will work in this recipe; the dark type will impart a deeper and nuttier flavor.

This tart features silky-smooth, rich custard and caramelized apples in a tender, earthy rye-flour pastry crust.

Lionel Vatinet developed this hearty bread--a good source of fiber--to satisfy his Eastern European customers.

In this playful riff on a bagel with cream cheese and lox, Food & Wine's Justin Chapple makes a custardy rye bread pudding with capers, then tops it with smoked salmon and red onion. It's warm, comforting and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.