Batter: A mixture of flour and liquid that is too soft to knead.

Bread flour: Flour that's milled from hard wheat and has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour. More protein creates more gluten, which results in a higher-rising loaf.

Crumb: The interior of the bread -- not the crust.

Dough: A mixture of flour, yeast, liquid, and other ingredients that is dry enough to knead.

Fermentation: The stage when yeast breaks down simple sugars and produces carbon dioxide and alcohol -- the bread begins to rise.

Gluten: The stretchy strands of protein formed when a wheat-flour dough is kneaded.

Knead: The process of folding dough onto itself until gluten strands form.

Oven-spring: The final growth spurt of yeast that occurs as the bread begins to bake.

Proofing: Another term for "the rise."

Slashing: Making incisions in the dough before it is baked.

Sponge: A mixture of yeast, flour, and liquid that is allowed to ferment before more flour is stirred in.

Yeast: A simple plant organism that, as it grows, converts sugars and starches into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Baker's yeast (there are also strains for beer and wine making) can be bought in dry or compressed fresh forms. (Fresh yeast comes in perishable tiny square cakes.) All recipes in this story call for dry yeast, also called active dry yeast. Bread-machine yeast and quick-acting, or rapid, yeast are other strains that will not produce optimum results with these recipes.