After re-watching the NYT video of Jim Lahey making his "No-Knead" bread I have noticed something I didn't see before. Watch it again and see if you can catch it:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2006/11/07/dining/1194817104184/no-knead-bread.html [1]

... did you see it?

Answer: the bread after the 19 hour rise time is sticky as a glue ball. However, the dough he starts to handle is anything but sticky. In fact it has a beautifully smooth and silky consistency.

So my question is, what did he do to that sticky mess that became easy to handle and even allowed him to throw it into a 500 deg pot?

Thanks in advance,

-ld (Ecc. 9:1-4)