Bejay- "Best method" is subjective. It's more important to understand what characteristics each method brings to your bread and let you decide "best". As Shirley Corriher says in her excellent book "CookWise", "Give ten bakers the same flour, yeast, salt, and water and have them make bread with just these ingredients and they will make ten different loaves of bread." There are three basic methods of breadmaking: -Straight or direct-mix method (relatively fast method most often used today) -Sponge Method (all of the liquid, yeast, and part of the flour are beaten together and allowed to ferment - anywhere from 30-minutes to 12-24 hours) -Naturally-leavened (sourdough or starter) As a bonus not normally lumped into these standard bread methods, I'll add the No-Knead Bread Method - a modern version of the sponge method made by retarding the mixture in the refrigerator. Each of these methods impart their own "stamp" on breads. If I want to make light, high-rising loaves of 100% Whole Wheat Flour Bread, and avoid those whole wheat "bricks", I'll use a sponge method which is better suited for this type of bread than using the straight-dough method. Even as little as a 30-minute sponge will improve your bread. "Experts" say the optimum amount is 2-1/2 hours for a sponge. For whole wheat bread I prefer an overnight sponge, but 2-1/2-hours works well enough. When dough is chilled (retarding the dough), it influences the dough in three ways: -Enhances the flavor (the yeast goes into dormancy so it no longer consumes all the available sugar and the bacteria present can feed and produce flavorful acids. -Reduces ovenspring and loaf volume -Opens texture slightly There are those wonderful recipes for Cool Rise Bread that helped the busy homemaker in the 1950's. The recipe from Kitchen Aid for "Quick Mix Cool Rise Bread" was very popular. When it comes to the sourness of your starter, that can determined by the amount of hydration in your mixture. It gets more acidic the less water is in the mix. Once the yeast has consumed the sugar, the yeasts die off. The bacteria have a chance to develop that "sour" taste and will consume the dead yeast and produce lactic acid - the same souring acid found in yogurt and kefir. Adding yogurt is a modern adaptation, but when it comes to starter, they are about as varied as the people making them ;-). In my grandmother's day, they used starter all the time and never called the bread "sourdough". When the bread took on an acidic flavor we think of as "sourdough" bread, they did what was called "sweetening the pot". They took a tablespoon of the starter, and with consecutive feedings, developed that small into their usual amount of starter for the typical mild-flavored breads they made back then. Before the advent of fresh and dried yeast products, there were any number of methods for making naturally-leavened bread. "Old dough" (a lump of dough packed into flour and kept cool until the next baking day when it was used to make a starter), homemade yeast products made with hops and cornmeal, dry homemade yeast as well as liquid homemade yeast and starter.... I can make a naturally-leavened bread by using my homemade kefir + flour for the starter. There are lots of friendly bacteria in the kefir and lots of yeast in the whole wheat flour - more than enough to make bread rise. -Grainlady

I just cooked chicken breasts to take to our church to be made into pounds and pounds of chicken salad for our Christmas fundraiser. Here's the method I used...it worked perfectly. How To Cook Moist & Tender Chicken Breasts Every Time What You Need Ingredients 1 to 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, of similar size Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil, unsalted butter, or combination of both Equipment Heavy Mason jar or wide drinking glass Wide (10-inch) sauté pan with lid Tongs or spatula Instructions Flatten the chicken breasts: Pound the chicken breasts to an even thickness with the bottom of a wide jar or glass. You can also (carefully!) use the handle of a heavy chef's knife. Season the chicken breasts: Lightly salt and pepper the chicken breasts. Prepare the pan: Heat the sauté pan over medium-high heat. When it is quite hot, add the olive oil (or butter, if using). Swirl the pan so it is lightly covered with the olive oil. Cook the chicken breasts for 1 minute without moving: Turn the heat to medium. Add the chicken breasts. Cook for just about 1 minute to help them get a little golden on one side (you are not actually searing or browning them). Flip the chicken breasts: Then flip each chicken breast over. Turn the heat down to low: Turn the heat to low. Cover the pan and cook on low for 10 minutes. Cover with a tight-fitting lid. Set a timer for 10 minutes, and walk away. Do not lift the lid; do not peek. Turn off the heat and let sit for an additional 10 minutes: After 10 minutes have elapsed, turn off the heat. (If you have an electric stove, remove the pan from the heat.) Reset the timer for 10 minutes and leave the chicken breasts in the pan. Again, do not lift the lid; do not peek. Remove lid and take temperature: After the 10 minutes are up, take the lid off, and your chicken is done. Make sure there is no pink in the middle of the chicken breasts. If you want to be absolutely sure it is cooked, you can use an instant-read thermometer to check (the chicken should be at least 165°F). Slice and eat. Store any leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator. Here is a link that might be useful: How to cook moist, tender chicken breasts every time

There's also individual variation between plants of the same variety. Genetics are not identical--just stable for the traits of the variety. The way 2 German shepherds will meet the breed standard but not be clones of one another at all. For example, I have 2 Earl of Edgecombe plants in similar sized containers right next to one another, getting fed and watered the same. One is very branchy/bushy and has twice the fruit set of the other. But it had early BER, has smaller fruits, and is slower to produce ripe fruit. The other is more tree-like in habit with a clear main stem, has fewer fruit, but average fruit size is larger, and it's ripening earlier. Both have the same foliage, though, and fruit characteristics are very similar. It's hard to draw solid conclusions from small sample sizes. You'd have to grow out a bunch of plants in identical conditions except for the variable you're testing. Or, if you wanted to do a very small sample size, you could probably take suckers of the same plant and root those and grow those to compare. But you'd have to account for the time difference/maturity difference of the suckers.

Congrats on your new toy! Perfect time of year for it. I have a Breville multicooker, which is similar, though the settings may be a bit different. I use it for beans and bean stews on slow cook. That means that I've attempted to sprout beans in it, but it only worked with cannelini beans. Mostly me being anxious about them disintegrating or getting mushy before they could sprout. Draining twice a day. Not plugged in or with the lid down (breathable cover). Just sitting in the wet trying to sprout. Then cook the beans on the bean setting, with the time adjusted as per the manual for the beans being soaked. Drained again, and while they're in the colander, brown the meat on the sear setting. I cut cheap(ish), lean beef into dice 1/2" tops because it want it to cook down to nothing. Set aside with the beans or in a bowl. Next, brown the onions on the sauté setting, and start the rest of the veg cooking once the onions are golden. Peppers, carrots, celery (mirepoix x trinity), plus anything I want to use up. Change to stew setting, add the beans and meat, diced tomatoes (canned or fresh), tomato paste or chili sauce, and some herbs and spices. I usually want to cook it half again as long as the base number, so I adjust that. When it's done and tastes "right", I use the reduce setting to steam off the excess water, to get a thick, rich stew. I've also caramelized onions in it, but it's going to take running the deodorizing recipe to fully remove the smell of that...