Great blog. Thanks for the helpful and timely information. The author makes the point that "sponge" is another name for preferment. Old cookbooks are full of bread recipes using the "sponge method," although I've never seen it referred to as preferment in the old recipes. Apparently, the sponge method was the standard and preferred homemade bread baking technique at one time -- at least for some cookbook authors -- as they talk about the superior final product from a sponge compared to the conventional method. Not sure about that, but it may be worth looking for these old recipes and trying some.

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