Toasting the bread will bring some of the crust's crunchy texture back. The refrigerator, that miraculous 20th century food preserver that keeps our celery crisp and our milk chilled, is actually the last place your bread belongs.
That is, unless you're looking to store a commercial loaf of bread, which will have preservatives that keep it "fresh. Breads with added fat, like challah and brioche , will take longer to go stale, whereas a baguette—because of its narrow shape and lack of fat—is an extreme case and will go stale very rapidly. It should really be eaten the day it's baked. And, you know what? Despite your best efforts, bread will occasionally go stale. And before you say that everything in bird feathers is icky, let me remind you that your own body, and steaks, and tofu, are all full of cysteine too.
It is a very common compound, and as essential to our body as vitamin C. Also, cysteine is a reducing agent. It allows gluten-forming compounds to denature and link together faster, it has no effect on the shelf life of the product.
Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Version labels for answers. Linked 2. Related 4. Hot Network Questions. Question feed. Seasoned Advice works best with JavaScript enabled. This retrogradation means a hardening of the crumb as moisture moves out from the starches, eventually taking a loaf of bread from soft and pliable to excessively hard and what we identify as stale.
Other processes begin to take effect with the crust as well, as it begins drawing moisture out from the crumb into itself, making the crust rugged and leathery. You can see this directly in your kitchen: reheat a slice of stale bread in the oven or toaster and you'll think you almost have a slice of fresh-baked bread on your plate—for a few minutes at least.
It's also worth knowing that doughs containing some percentage of fats lipids will typically last longer before staling. The fat present in the dough slows the re-crystallization of the starch granules and reduces the movement of moisture between starches and proteins de-gelatinization 3 which causes the crumb to harden. Note that staling and drying are distinctly different processes at work.
Staling can result in a firm, hard loaf of bread but is not necessarily due to the evaporation or loss of water from the crumb and crust, it's more about the retrogradation process described above. However, drying can also occur and can especially be a problem in arid climates like where I live in New Mexico.
To avoid excessive drying, it's important to make sure bread is stored properly cut-side-down, using a breadbox, etc. The following steps are loosely how I take a loaf of my baked bread from the oven, to cooling, to cutting, to long term storage.
Cutting fresh-baked bread too early will result in a gummy and sticky interior. First and foremost, it's always best to let fresh bread rest until it's cool and fully set before slicing. I know, fresh-from-the-oven is hard to resist, but your bread will not only taste better it will keep longer if you wait to cut it for at least an hour—I actually prefer two or more. The reason goes back to the science behind all of this : starch retrogradation is happening right as the loaf is pulled from the oven, but it hasn't progressed far enough to firm up and set the interior appropriately.
Because of this, slicing a warm loaf of bread too early will result in a gummy and sticky interior. In fact, with these types of breads I find their flavor improves days after baking. With rye bread , especially when rye is in a high percentage, it's common to let the bread rest, wrapped in baker's linen or a towel, for one or two days before cutting. Once cool, I first cut the loaf directly down the middle creating two halves as seen above, right.
This way after slicing from the middle I can turn the halves so the crumb is facing the cutting board. This completely surrounds the interior by the relatively thick crust, keeping it from drying out excessively. The crust is a natural bag of sorts, keeping moisture in and dryness out.
I can typically keep my bread like this for a day or two remember, it's very dry here on my cutting board, at which point I move it to a breadbox. This is as simple as it gets: just keep your cooled loaves, cut or uncut, in a bread box, and let the box do its job.
I've had a few different boxes over the years, and when my favorite Wesco German-made box broke thank my kids for that one I replaced it with the svelte stainless steel breadbox seen below and it works just as well if not better. I like that it's rather large H: 7. So I f you do not want to have a bread box taking up that space on your counter top you can always store your bread in a drawer.
Some kitchens come build in with a bread drawer. If you are not familiar with these drawers they are basically just a drawer with a cover on top, kind of like a garage door in most cases. These are drawers specifically designed for bread just like a bread box. If your kitchen does not have one of these simply place the bread in a paper bag or a linen bag. Make sure the paper bag or linen bag is sealed well and make sure to close the drawer.
Place your bread there, preferably in a plastic container or a linen bag so it wants to get too messy and attract live pests. Tip : its a force of a habit to forget what you put in the drawer in the first place. I find that an appliance garage is a good choice to store bread. It is right on the workbench or on your countertop, accessible, and simulates the conditions of a bread box: cool dry place. Everyone knows the brown paper bag.
Simple and plain but it does the job. This is the reason bakeries sell you bread in a brown paper bag. As mentioned earlier the paper bag is ideal for storing bread. If you plan on leaving your bread on the countertop then put the bread inside the paper bag and place the paper bag inside a plastic bag.
The plastic bag must be kept open while the paper bag will be closed tightly. Storing it this way will allow air to circulate freely inside the plastic bag but not as much as if your paper bag was out in the open. A linen bread bag is a great way to keep bread fresh at a minimum cost while keeping a conscientious eye on the environment. The linen fabric slows the process where the bread loses its moisture while in contact with the air, hence buying an extra days of freshness.
It also will keep your loaf crust crispy better than other methods. There are many natural linen bread bags in the market in different shapes, sizes and designs.
For baguettes too. Again, I really love these bags, especially because they are reusable and you can always throw them in your washing machine and it comes out good as new. I feel compelled to warn you of these storage options as they will only set your bread back and expedite the expiration date on your bread. This is a common mistake, made by many. It traps the moisture inside the bag and among others softens up your crust.
The end result being your bread goes bad much faster. Tinfoil act very similar to a plastic bag, meaning trapping the moisture inside it, making the bread develop mold faster than it normally would. Storing bread in a fridge is a bad choice as your refridgirator is a very dry too dry envoirnment. If you store bread in a fridge you will notice the slices come out crumbly or they just fall aprt.
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