Kernel recompile with minor changes -- how?

[Christian Schnobrich <schnobs@babylon-kino.de>]

Hello,

when I'm compiling a kernel, it is quite common for me to miss a module
at first, or have wrong values in some place or other.

I'm following what I read in the kernel-package docs, with next to no
understanding of what it actually does... 
Apparently, compiling will start from scratch each time. But often, 99%
of what needs to be built has been built correctly on the last run.

Is there a way to save the good work, and discard only what needs to be
rebuilt?

cu,
Schnobs