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lindag Ohhh!! No! That's not bread. How could you ever eat a cheese, ham, pickle, salad sandwich? 100g loaf is perfect for me, for dunking into stews, curries and, of course, for sandwiches. Thanks.

Hi all Thanks for the i/p. @liuzhou - I presume you mean 180oC . Whoops. One thing in Darina's video; she uses 1/2tsp to 1lb flour. That means <=1/8tsp/100g. I think I need to try that next. Fof

First let me say I am NOT a cook. I just mess around. Over the years, I have eaten 'bread' in many places around the world. One that always stuck in my mind was soda bread, because of its flavour. Not a nice one. I live on my own, with just an up & over fridge freezer, so limited storage. I don't use a lot of bread, a large loaf will last me 2-3 weeks, so when I buy some, it takes up valuable freezer space. Running around the web, I see LOTS of recipies for soda bread. As the ones I had tried had probably been home made, and to personal taste, I decided to have a trial. The first time, the recipe called for 100g-500g flour + 1tsp baking soda/100g flour. HORRIBLE! Checked another recipe - 500g flour + 1 tsp baking soda, ie <1/4 tsp/100g. Retried the original but with <1/4tsp, but still the flavour is there, albeit greatly reduced. How little baking soda can I get away with, without ending up with unleaven bread? Can the flavour be eliminated? TIA Fof

Guys, Gals and any others out there. @liuzhou - Spot on. Yes I am in the UK. Will try Maris Piper @btbyrd - As you say " There is no "best" or "correct" way to do anything." I have had a few 'debates' over the years, regarding this, not just in cooking but in other fields as well. It seems that over the years, there has been a race to see who can make something simple, as complicated as possible. In cooking, Heston Blumenthal comes to mind, as a prime example. I am a simple person, who likes to do things the simplest way i.e. lazy. Enough of this though. Just for interest, I went down to my local store, earlier, and checked out the spuds. They had:- English Red - red skinned, white flesh, waxy. 2.5kg bag only. Maris Piper - floury. 2.5kg bag only White potatoes - floury but who knows what variety/varieties they are, ie generic. Loose medium sized spuds or bagged, small, medium and large ones. That's all my choices. Keep the comments coming, please. I am really enjoying this thread😁 Fof

Guys Thanks for all the comments. I suspect it is a potato variety problem. To the best of my recollection, we just bought 'generic' potatoes from the local shops. These were always whites. I do recall the name King Edwards, but whether these were the generics or not, who know. It was quite a few years before I knew anything about such things as floury/waxy, or red skinned with white or yellow flesh. Now I buy the 'generic' potatoes from the local shops, and the results are very underwhelming. I know I can double/triple cook, but more hassle. I am one of those guys who pretty well decides what to have to eat when I enter the kitchen. Meat will have been decided and set to thaw, but as to what I do with it, depends on my fancy at that moment in time. I like spontaneity😵😓😓 I guess I have start to try different varieties😓 Fof ps how to delete misplaced Emoji?

This may seem, and almost probably is, a daft question, but I need help. As a kid, I am now 74, my mother, and myself later, just cut the chips, threw then in the basket and lowered it into HOT dripping (Always being VERY careful the pan didn't boil over. Happened.) Now, all I get are chips that are excessively brown on the outside, and not fully cooked in the middle. Yeukkk!!! I now have a deep fryer, set to 180C, as all web recipies state, and checked with an IR thermometer. Never attempts to boil over, so is therefore at a lower temp then previously. Raising the temp just makes the chips worse. Checking the web tells me how to double and triple cook them, and even shallow frying them. Any and all ideas and suggestions are being asked for. HELP!! Fof