Bread & Butter

If Mr. Beagles is making three loaves of bread at a time, I am guessing that he is not using one of the new-fangled bread making machines where you add all the ingredients, push a button, and wait for the baked result.  That doesn't seem like the rewarding experience of rolling up your sleeves, dusting the kitchen table with some flour, and kneading a great wad of dough into submission, until it is just right, and then setting it aside to rise.  Just thinking about freshly baked bread is making my mouth water.

I read a household hint about slicing home baked bread: turn it upside down and cut from the bottom.  The  hardened top crust can cause you to crush the bread while cutting; I haven't tried this method myself but it sounds reasonable (serrated knife preferred).

Online opinion is unanimous against the practice of storing bread in the refrigerator. It has less to do with it drying out than the retrogration of the starch molecules.  I've never had a problem with bread stored at room temperature; it gets moldy before it dries out but I don't eat a lot of bread.  And the bread I do eat is of the commercial variety and pre-sliced,  loaded with all kinds of preservatives.

For such a simple food staple, bread can be very complex.  I wasn't aware of all the different types of flour you can use; I've fallen into the trap of using "all purpose" flour for everything and I should give it more thought when I bake, which hasn't been often enough lately.  Unfortunately, my kitchen is lacking in proper counter space and there is no room for a table so my big league cooking and baking days may be over.  I still remember my killer chocolate chip cookie recipe, though.

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Any thoughts on butter?  I like unsalted for cooking, salted for toast, and if I'm getting real fancy with pastry I'll use Plugra.  I can't usually taste the difference between name-brand and store-brand butter, but that could be due to tired old taste buds.  I imagine a lot depends on the diet of the dairy cattle, which in the US might mean they are all eating the same thing.  But there might be a market for artisanal butter, like there is for cheese; anybody up for goat butter?