@John Brunner - aside from zucchini bread- no never have made. It turned out decent. this was a bit bit like artisan bread. I see now several places where I went wrong. No heavy bit a bit doughy Mark said. But still soft this morning, is great warm,with butter and bit of jelly. P>S> Oxtails ? I will stick with me beans and taters
Figuring out when bread is done is tough. "Tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow." Or some say to use a thermometer. Sure. My bread tends to be slightly on the well-done side for that reason. Or sometimes I can tell by the weight. Maybe @Beth Gallagher has advice. Regarding oxtails...it ain't no different than any cut of beef. If you pick the smaller pieces, you'll know they were furthest from the arse. Your husband was a butcher. I'm sure he's seen his fair share of them (oxtails, not arses.)
Mostly just trial and error; everyone's oven is different. I haven't made bread in a while but I bought a Breville bread machine last year so I just dump ingredients and press "start."
I ordered a frozen GV pizza from Walmart, one that had the self-rising crust, and then added more veggies on it, peppers, tomato, and mushrooms, plus more Italian seasoning and extra cheese, and baked it in the toaster oven. It was just the right size and tasted great ! I have not ordered a frozen pizza since I used to have the Krogers to shop at, and they had a good frozen pizza, and they closed 4-5 years ago. I think we will be doing this more often when we want pizza.