King Arthur Flour, on their blog, has an interesting article on old
and new techniques on bread making.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2010/08/25/curious-about-yeast-bread-old-traditions-meet-new-techniques/
It answers the question that was just asked about instant yeast and
active dry yeast describes many other changes in bread making.
I've changed my techniques in the past few years. I buy the big bag
of SAF instant yeast from KAF and either mix/knead/first rise in the
bread machine or I make bread the Artisan Bread in Five minutes a Day.
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/
kathleen