Here's the simplest bread, and perhaps the best bread, I've ever tried. That is, if one likes a chewy bread with a hard crisp crust. One can find no knead bread on Youtube, etc. But I've "perfected it" to the utmost simplicity. Here's how I do it. I've been making a loaf, about every other day, since November. This is a major part of what I carry to work for break time and lunch. I can whip this bread up in moments, though, it then sits for about 18 hours before I do anything else with it. More often than not, I substitute a tablespoon of sourdough starter and 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda, for the yeast. It always comes out great. 1) To a nonmetal bowl add 1 1/2 cups of water: temperature is unimportant. 2) To this, add 1/4 teaspoon of dry active yeast and 1 teaspoon of salt. 3) Now, with a rubber spatula, mix in approximately 3 cups of flour. I often use 1/2 cup of corn meal or even one cup of rye, in place of some of the white flour.. 4) Mix until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. It will be too sticky to knead, even if you wanted to. But it should be "dough," not "batter." 5) Put a lid on this and let sit for 12 to 24 hours. I was originally told 18 hours. But 12 to 24 seems to be exact enough. After this waiting period: 1) Flour your counter and scrape this dough onto the counter. 2) Flour your hands and fold this blob of dough by thirds. 3) Lightly flour the bowl, from which the dough was taken. 4) Quickly (or it will really stick to your hands) plop it back into the bowl. 5) Cover and let sit for 1 1/2 hours. At end of 1 1/2 hour wait: 1) Place a covered glass casserole dish in the oven, set at 500 F., for 15 minutes. 2) Carefully remove the dish and plop your dough into it. Replace the cover and put the whole thing in the oven. 3) Wait 40-45 minutes 4) Remove the lid from the casserole dish, decrease the temperature in the oven, to 400 F. 5) Wait 15 minutes more and remove from the oven. You can let it cool in the dish, though I usually get it out before it's cold. This bread is HEAVENLY when sliced hot and eaten with butter. But it does make good toast and sandwiches. \ Give it a try and enjoy! George

Carol, My apologies for not getting back to you as promised but it looks like you were in real bakers' hands! I have been busy making a float for the Garparilla Parade today. It paid off because my grandbabies won "Best of the Wagon" entries. Anyway, I made my dough yesterday and my first loaf from the Master Recipe today. It was perfect! To your original question, as our baker friend above said AND page 21 of the book says: Loaf has a soggy or gummy crumb (interior): Check your oven temperature with a thermometer. Make sure you are allowing the dough to rest for the full time period we've recommended. Your dough may benefit from being a litter drier. For the next batch, increase the flour by a quarter cup or decrease the liquids a little and check the results. If you're baking a large loaf (more than 1 pound), let it rest longer, and let it bake longer by 10 to 15 minutes. One final word of advice: if you're finding the breads just a little gummy, don't slice or eat your loaves when they're still warm. We know, hot bread has a certain romance, so it's hard to wait for it to cool. But waiting will improve the texture and when cool, the loaves don't compress so easily when cut. A sharp brad knife will go right through cooked crust and crumb with minimal compression. Again, I know the experts here have given you excellent guidance. Cathy

I tried doubling a bread recipe once, and doubled the yeast amount, and it was a mistake. The bread was way too yeasty, and didn't behave well. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I did, too late, look up how to double a bread recipe and found out you don't double the yeast. According to the same King Arthur Baker's Companion that the above recipe came from, "You can increase the size of most bread recipes simply by doubling, or tripling all the ingredients. The exception is the yeast; if you increase the amount of yeast at the same rate you increase everything else, you may find yourself with a lot of dough on your hands and not enough time to deal with it. For example, by the time you've shaped the eighth loaf, the first may be well on its way to doubled in size. Most home bread bakers prefer to stick with 1 tablespoon of yeast for up to eight loaves, and giving the bread a longer, slower rise. Not only does this improve the flavor, it slows down the rising dough so that you can work with the dough more effectively." Hope this helps. I'm glad you are enjoying the recipe. I need to make it again - it's been a long time. Sally

Well, if it wasn't a doctor or nutritionist who put you off beans, please do some more investigation. I saw a warning against black eyed peas, but most people I've read online seem to think that beans are okay for gout even though they have that chemical which I think starts with "p". I've never had chili with lima beans. Are those the dried ones? I can't imagine that fresh would survive a long cook. I love that kind of thing, though not so much the salt and butter. I don't use much of either. So I read something that said that potassium was good for gout, and that lima beans are good for potassium. Vitamin C is also supposed to help. Is the B12 helping with the fatigue? I recently got Bragg nutritional yeast to try because several here said it was great to use as a seasoning and it has added B vitamins. I'm going to try it in vegan snacks. Even though there's not enough sodium to earn a mention on the label, it has an almost salty taste, and also umami. Plus nutritional yeast is supposed to have complete proteins. Maybe something like that would be a good alternative to some of the salt?