What’s the general consensus on storing bread? In a bread box? In the fridge? In a drawer? Room temp? Looking for ways to increase the number of days a bread can last for both store bought and homemade bread 🍞
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For the maximum, freeze it. As far as countertop vs. fridge, of course fridge will keep it fresh longer, but whether that works for you depends on your texture preferences and the type of bread.
Freezer or countertop is the best bet, personally I think the fridge makes it feel too gummy. It also makes it absorb moisture weirdly. Freezer bread is best toasted or grilled, but it’s fine for regular sandwiches too.
For sure freezer, and never fridge. Frozen bread, especially sliced bread, thaws really fast. If you leave it on the counter, it stays soft okay, but goes moldy quickly. In the fridge, it lasts okay but gets kind of hard quickly. In the freezer, when you thaw it, it will be soft until it’s freezer burned, and lasts like months.
Half joking… In absolute terms, - convert it to beer. Earliest forms of beer were basically leftover old bread left to ferment. It’s not great by itself, and the natural CO2 smells green about like rising bread. You’ll realize the effects of bittering agents like hops in commercial beer, but if you simply grind up old bread and either a wild ferment or add a little yeast to an air tight container with an air lock valve or sealed and burp it a few times, you can still access a significant chunk of those calories months or years later.
Freezer
Homemade bread: 2-3 days in a paper bag on the counter, or slice and freeze. Generic bread: Usually freeze and then toast a couple slices at a time, refrigerate if we’re using it faster, didn’t care about ideal taste/texture as much.
Do you always slice the bread before you freeze a bread? I usually freeze the whole or half the bread. Just wondering if there is another reason for freezing it that way other than being able to take out the exact amount of slices you want.
Slice and freeze helps reduce moisture, and makes it less gummy.
If you freeze the slices on a sheet first, then bag it, they seem to dry out a little more, reducing the gumminess (and freezer burn).
How do you thaw/use a half loaf? I think a frozen slice toasts very well, which is why do that.
I usually just let the whole thing thaw and then use it as normal bread… Probably not a good habit. I’ll try slicing up front instead 👍
I usually get bread from my local store where they make it in house. It tends to go bad quicker than regular store bought bread.
If it’s going to get eaten right away (Within a day or two) it’s usually in the cupboard where my cats won’t pick at it. If I need to keep it around for up to a week or so, then it’ll last longer in the fridge. If I stock up on multiple loaves and I want to keep it Longer term storage it goes in the freezer. It usually thaws in about an hour or two when it comes out of the freezer.
Bread box if eaten soon, freezer if it won’t be eaten until after the beat by date. Some freeeze better for non-toasted than others. Honey wheat freezes better than white bread in my experience.
I haven’t ever refrigerated bread to know how that goes since it thaws from freezing pretty fast.
Depends.
Cold storages makes the amylose retrograde, but in store bought bread there are several tricks to circumvent/prevent this. Retrogradation makes the bread “go dry”.
On the other hand, cold storage is more favourable in terms of microbial aspects.
I’d say room temp for homemade bread for a good compromise between sensory and microbial quality.
I dehydrate mine and reconstitute it in some water when I want it.
