Does storing bread in the fridge make it last longer? (2019) | Hacker News Reader

Does storing bread in the fridge make it last longer? (2019)

culinarylore.com

171 pointsycombinete131 comments

So, there's been a lot of reacting to this article on the level of bread preservation, and that's definitely some useful life knowledge, but don't miss the subtext: This article is using a debate about bread as the object of a lesson in the importance of precise communication. I've seen this argument happen before. It was once a source of much debate within my extended family. And, like the article describes, the basis for the acrimony was 100% that the two different camps were both defining the word "last" in two subtly different ways, and doggedly refusing to recognize or acknowledge it.

Similar patterns play out elsewhere. For example, open source and copyleft tend to be using different working definitions of "free." And the distinction in question is not the one indicated by the F's capitalization.

> For example, open source and copyleft tend to be using different working definitions of "free"

Not really. Both proponents of open source (OSI) and proponents of copyleft (FSF) use mostly interchangeable definitions of 'free'. Both copyleft (GPL) and permissive (e.g. BSD licences) are considered free by both sides.

The key word there is "mostly." There are details that differ, though, and that is where the devil creeps in.

It's not necessarily even in disagreeing about what practical things can and cannot justifiably be called freedoms. It's more in disagreeing about which ones are important to protect. Which, generally, when people talk about their freedoms, they're using the term as a shorthand for just the freedoms they think need protection.

Similarly, I think that both fridge and non-fridge people generally accept both staling and getting moldy as forms of spoilage. It's just that, either as a matter of practicality or as a matter of taste, one group is more preoccupied with staling, either because mold isn't a problem where they live ,or because they are more likely to consider stale bread to be inedible, or because loaves in their house rarely last long enough to mold, anyway. The other has different priorities, and will accept staling in return for a longer time before the bread actually becomes unsafe to eat. But all these subtleties are lost, taking important subtext in the debate with them, if you focus on the broad strokes definition of the word "last" instead of really paying attention to the details.

Also, framing the question as 'open source vs copyleft' does not make sense, as these are really two questions 'open source vs free software' and 'permissive vs copyleft'. The first question is mainly about branding of free/open-source software, whether emphasise pragmatic aspects, or idealistic aspects (user freedom). OSI is AFAIK agnostic on 'permissive vs copyleft' question.

When has the OSI ever advanced a definition of "free software"?

Another classic example is free in the GNU sense vs the BSD sense.

Wouldn't it be better in the last case to use a different term that's less likely to be misunderstood/misinterpreted, especially in technical contexts that lack much of the cultural baggage that would prevent such a solution offline?

So much miscommunication, wasted time, hurt feelings, etc could have been avoided if, say, GNU decided not to muddy the term "free".

Better? Perhaps.

Feasible? Not without first eliminating every trace of polysemy and connotation from the natural languages.

Everything could be avoided if the democrats did not muddly the term "freedom" and simply let the definition be the same as liberty.

Through if we really want to find out whom to blame for ruining the word, it would be Thomas Hobbes and John Locke combined for not finding an agreement on the words definition.

I live in a hot, humid, tropical city. If you leave bread out it will become a mold colony once you've opened the bag.

Fresh, room-temperature bread is a luxury only available for sandwiches made immediately after opening the bag. Bread lives in the fridge after that.

If you want to revivify your bread when it comes out of the fridge, sprinkle a little water on the underside and put it in the oven on a low temperature for 10-15 minutes. You will have nice warm slightly-toasted bread, and the water will have spread through it and helped it be more welcoming to the tooth.

You've caught an important detail- that it molds once you've opened the bag- but only if you leave it there in after.

Bread boxes are one of those relics that faded into obscurity after the mid-century in the US, often becoming homes to all the other things you didn't know what to do with on your counters, but they used to serve an important role in keeping bread fresh and protected.

When we switched from formed dough breads to inexpensive batter loaves (the ostensible wonder of "Wonder Bread" was that it didn't have any air pockets... because it was poured into the molds), the lack of hearty crust and reliance on high moisture meant its quality quickly degraded in the open air, making it poorly suited to the former storage. However, if you bake a traditional American sandwich loaf, the best way to keep its texture and preserve it is to leave it only lightly covered so moisture doesn't accumulate and invite mold or make the crust lose its crispness.

So, if you want your bread to last (if indeed it is bread), don't stick it back in the bag to turn into a terrarium. Let it breathe and dehumidify some, and it will last until it dries completely. Better a little dry than moldy, right?

The Chorleywood process which industrialised bread making is credited by some with destroying bread as a staple and replacing it with tasteless and nutrition free alternative.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

Non-amp link https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/apr/16/recipes...

because AMP is credit by some with destroying...

Argh, sorry. Yes, that was gross of me.

Being an obviously little short sighted European, it blows my mind that 1) bread boxes are not used everywhere and 2) it's not common knowledge that bread will get moldy when stored in a plastic bag. Happens even in temperate climate.

Also depends on your bread. Supermarket bread likely has mold inhibitors in it that probably aren't used in bakery breads intended for quick consumption. Or as my EU relatives do: clear out their stock and freeze a couple week's at a time.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mold+inhibitors+in+bread

Short sighted again as huge parts of the world sit at 25+ C and 75%+ humidity for months on end

I had bread boxes growing up, but I always remember them smelling strongly of mold. Maybe we were neglecting them and using them improperly, but I now have this association in my mind that a breadbox makes mold worse.

They mustn't be fully sealed.

In case you don't have a bread box: After bringing home the bread in a paper bag, put it on a cutting board with the cut side down. Pull over the paper bag. This is offcourse for real bakery bread, not the industry rubber bread that comes presliced.

^this

I don’t bother with the bag, just keep the cut sides down. When you slice the loaf, start in the middle and work towards the ends. That way, the halves don’t fall over.

The bread remains edible for two days, especially sourdough. (I’m talking about homemade bread here, not the white fluff.)

Slice any remainder before it gets too stiff. Turn a few slices into croutons.

Fry the slices and croutons in olive oil on the following two days.

You also generate crumbs for breading: just use a rolling pin or bottle on the dried bread.

This way, plan on baking twice a week. It’s also possible to make up a batch of dough once a week and freeze half.

I believe the Spanish have a fish stew with stale bread as an ingredient whose name I can’t recall atm

Bread pudding is also nice for stale bread.

We make croutons or baked French toast depending on how much is left. For baguettes or batards, I'll make molletes (bean toast) with pico de gallo after they've dried beyond regular use.

The article's facts are right, but its conclusion is kinda wrong.

Don't put your bread in the fridge -- slice it and put it in the freezer!

Because in either case you need to heat it up in the oven/toaster anyways, so you might as well put it somewhere where it will keep for months, rather than weeks.

I agree completely, we freeze all our bread - sliced sandwich bread, burger buns, bagels. The experts agree we're doing it right!

Harold McGee replies: Good point to bring up! Bread and other lean baked goods are the exception to the rule that cold storage is good. Bread stales faster at refrigerator temperatures than at room temperature. So if you want to keep a loaf for a couple of days, a breadbox is better than the fridge. For much longer than that, the freezer is the best place.

https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/harold-mc...

We didn’t have much money when I was a kid and we used the hell out of the deep freeze any time things were on sale. 3 for 2 offer on bread? Half a dozen loaves would come home with us and all but one went in the freezer.

Now that we rarely go to the grocery store/order a delivery, I’m using the same trick. We almost got rid of in in the move but I kept it despite it being a temporary pain to deal with.

Works with bagels, too. Lots of ‘bakeries’ (think Panera) in the US have Tuesday deals, the one I have access to is 13 for $6.99 which brings the price per half to less than the cost of a slice of the cheapest store brand bread and with much better quality (still far worse than a real NYC bagel but better than the supermarket). They freeze and defrost very well.

I used to go to school by a Panera (St. Louis Bread Company where I'm from), and my schedule made it so I was often in there after some sports activity grabbing a light dinner around closing time.

I found out they often had a trash bag full of bagels they'd throw away if they didn't have a charity to give them to that day.

Since I was a frequent customer, I asked for a bag a few times over the course of four years. I froze about 50 bagels and gave the rest to friends, and I often had a nice toasted bagel free each morning :)

Or English muffins. Hell I think my local grocery has most of them in the freezer section, not the bread section.

Stores around my college were always pushing English muffins. Half off about once a month. An English muffin covered with peanut butter is astoundingly filling, if you’re low on cash, in a rush, or both.

I store my bread in the fridge and never heat it up. I just make a sandwich and eat it as is.

So you basically just always eat stale bread? It might be worth trying to heat it sometimes. ;)

Because the article doesn't make it entirely clear: to "de-stale" bread, it's not enough to bring it back to room temperature. You actually have to heat it to the "gelation point" (140°F) to undo the chemical reaction that made it stale in the first place. [1]

So even if you don't want it toasted, a quick zap in the microwave will improve its quality immensely.

[1] https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/8226-how-to-revive-...

This is really interesting. Thank you.

Damn, the process there is more time intensive than anything else. I'd just skip it, trash the stale bread and do a 10 minute grocery trip. How much is a loaf anyway? $10?

I don't get it. Why buy bread if you could simply eat cake..?

Because cake makes inferior ham and egg sandwiches, wtf. Worst suggestion ever.

About the same as a bluth banana.

Generally $3-$5.

Haha! I know I know. As far as supermarket breads go I like the fluffy Artesano ones.

I find the texture better and it lasts longer if I just freeze it and heat it up in the oven for five minutes at 250 F. By myself a whole loaf would end up moldy before I could make it more than a few slices in even in the refrigerator, but this way I don't have to waste bread to enjoy sandwiches at the pace I normally eat them, periodically.

Microwaving frozen bread slices for 30-60 seconds (depends on how much bread and how powerful your microwave is) works like a charm too.

I think that makes a lot of breads very chewy. In my view best is to let them sit at room temperature for around 30 minutes.

They're a bit chewy when they come out but they go back to normal after sitting a bit.

My sister froze bread, but it always came out soggy and gross from condensation. Maybe it was the type of freezers we have in the U.S., but whenever you thaw things there's going to be condensation and that doesn't work well with bread.

Might be a stupid question, but you are heating it all the way to toasting temperature, right? (Whether or not it stays there long enough to toast.) Because (at least IME) if you only heat it to room temperature, it definitely will end up soggy.

I did not know that you were supposed to do that. Like anything else from the freezer, I just let it sit out for awhile to thaw. I had never used freezers much except for things like ice cream or ice cubes, we always had fresh and/or canned food.

To this day I don't really know how to make frozen food properly edible, but today I learned one new thing.

I'm thinking that there is something wrong with your freezer, or your bread. We freeze all our sliced bread pretty much as soon as it comes home from the baker. Want a sandwich, pull it out of the freezer, break free a couple of slices (they come free pretty easily) and let them defrost for a couple of minutes. By the time you have made your sandwich, the bread is defrosted and as long as it's less than a couple of weeks old is still fairly soft and reasonably fresh.

I've found some types of bread (esp supermarket) won't let you break free a slice and end up as one big lump. In most cases this is pretty crappy bread anyway which we don't bother with.

Thaw just the slices you need in the toaster until it is warm but not yet actual toast

Unless it is thickly sliced you might not even need to heat it up in the oven/toaster. Just letting it thaw on the counter might work. For the slightly thin wheat bread I use for sandwiches, putting a couple slices on the counter for 10 minutes or so does the trick.

If I know I'm going to make a sandwich later, but am not sure when, I take the slices out in the morning and leave the on the counter covered with a towel. At first I didn't cover them, but by around lunch time they would just be starting to get a little stale. Covered with the towel, they are fine all day.

I replied elsewhere, but thawing it isn't enough -- to "de-stale" it requires heating it to 140°F:

https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/8226-how-to-revive-...

You only need to de-stale it if it is stale. Freezing stops the staling process.

From the source article:

> Incidentally, however, putting bread in the freezer halts the staling process altogether, so it is true that to keep bread for a long period of time, you can put it in the freezer, then take it out and let it thaw at room temperature.

My previous room mate had never heard of this. Freezing bread was completely foreign to him. He literally left bread out until it got moldy and stale instead of trying to preserve it.

Does refrigeration give a longer duration than freezing from intial storage to time at which heating is required?

For me I personally have had bread grow mold in the refrigerator (this may depend on the refrigerator settings/locale, my non a/c condo in San Francisco bay area is relatively humid so strawberries/blueberries/bread at room temp gets mold pretty quick) and have not had bread grow mold in the freezer before I eat it and that can take months for me to make it through the double loafs one gets at warehouse stores.

This is exactly the right thing to do. I make bread every week, and this is how we store it.

That only works if you have space in the freezer.

After a few weeks in a freezer, the insides of the bread turn white and dry.

Keep the bread fully sealed.

For long-term freezing, a chest freezer with no defrost cycle (which thaws and refreezes contents) is preferable.

Uhhhh...I don't think the defrost cycle is used that way. It's just meant to prevent buildup of ice in the freezer, not to thaw the contents. It should always be user-initiated (and with no contents).

... Most newer freezers are frost-free. Cool, right? (Ha, ha.) But the way frost-free freezers get rid of the frost could actually compromise the long-term quality of your food. The frost-free freezers eliminate frost by raising the temperature inside the freezer a few times a day, from about 0 degrees to 32 degrees.

While this still keeps your food at a freezing temperature, it prevents any free-floating water particles from forming into ice, instead collecting them and siphoning them out of the freezer. It saves you the hassle of frost in your fridge, but can actually cause more freezer burn, as your food temperatures are fluctuating slightly and that makes it easier for moisture inside your food to escape. ...

https://www.thekitchn.com/the-problem-with-frost-free-freeze...

Ah the things I learn from clicking random HN links - Sliced bread was once illegal in the United States!

https://culinarylore.com/food-history:sliced-bread-was-once-...

> since this bread, without its heavy wrapping of wax-paper would dry out more quickly “housewives” would often throw away the stale slices. This wasted wheat.

Surprising. I just tear apart stale slices and let them dry out. Then use them as soup dippers, soup crumble (as people do with crackers) or give to my mom to make bread crumbs.

TL;DR: banned during rationing in WWII, which is less sensational. Lots of things got weird during rationing.

One of those actions that has more to do with optics and making people feel like they're making an achievable contribution, ignoring the minimal impact on the actual problem.

Like banning straws.

Around here peeling potatoes b before boiling was illegal during rationing in WWII.

Maybe we didn't know that then, but that's actually dangerous. As potatoes start to go 'off' it starts to turn green on the outside, and the green bits contain alkyloids that are hell on the liver. You have to peel at least past the green.

I'm guessing the potato police would swoop in and inspect your spuds for signs of peeling prior to cooking. Got to watch out for the might PP (potato police). ;-)

I've been making two loaves a week, sourdough and rye, for over a year now. After they cool overnight they go in the fridge for a couple hours just to make slicing them easier, then they get bagged and go in the freezer. This seems like it maintains 'freshness' the best. The toaster is more or less set to defrost a frozen slice on the first run and toast it on the second. Ironically, the starter mix does live in the fridge on a daily basis, never goes stale and never goes bad.

I have three kids and have been baking bread for over a decade— I do 4-5 loaves at once, and it's a mix of white, wheat, sourdough, and regular yeast. Between toast for breakfast and maybe grilled cheese the next day for lunch, we can wipe out a loaf in 24 hours, so I don't bother with the individual-slice freezing thing and just freeze/defrost whole loaves at once. Once defrosted, it lives in a grocery bag in the fridge so that we get more than a day or two on the off-chance that it is forgotten about.

For any other home bakers out there, definitely grab a set of the Nordic Ware pans— they're worth every penny and so much more a joy to use than other thin-walled ones which rust, peel, and warp.

Nothing beats grilled cheese on sourdough (assuming that is the same as “cheese on toast”). Your kids are lucky.

I’m very similar, even my toaster method! I bake bread for the household once a week. 1 kilo of flour, 2 loaves. Sliced up and frozen within an hour or so of coming out of the oven.

I don’t understand how a sourdoughs starter could go stale though, as it’s a liquid, not bread?

My starter recently got the orange streak of doom, and I’m back to an overnight biga artisan bread.

I avoid the fridge as it definitely stales homemade bread, and leaving it out too long ends up chasing mould. Freezer is the best option for sure.

It’s interesting how different breads made at home go stale. Sourdough does lasts a few days. Focaccia ages terribly and is stale after a day. Ciabatta ages really well and is still good days later. The ciabatta is made with tipo 00 flour.

So you slice the whole loaf after the hours in the fridge and before going in the freezer?

Or you use a power saw to slice it after taking out of the freezer?

Pro tip: slice and freeze fresh bread and either defrost it over a few hours or just toast it before consumption.

Refrigerated bread gets soggy fast and is not worth the space it takes in the fridge.

This is what we do and have done when I grew up; my parents would go to lidl or aldi and get a loaf of bread per day of the week and yeet it in their big chest freezer, every day (in the evening) they'd take one out to defrost overnight. We do it now as well although our freezer isn't that big.

Defrosting it is best done at room temperature, but in a bind can be done in the microwave; it's a very thin line between defrosting it and warming it up (making it soggy and warm and ugh) though.

This is the useful "lifehack" I've been using for a while - just put everything in the freezer. For sliced bread, it just needs a 10-minute cook in the toaster oven, and you'll never worry about bad bread in the fridge again... Food in the fridge still decays and it can be a headache if you left something inside. but food in the freezer has practically an unlimited life - may not be as good after a while, but not dangerous.

I keep my bread in the fridge to prevent sogginess. I just make sure it's in the plastic and clipped shut. My big reason for keeping it in the fridge is because it's dry and sealed.

I live in Palo Alto and buy sourdough bread from Costco. If I don't put the loaves in the fridge immediately, they mold. Sometimes it happens in 36 hours, in an air-conditioned home, in an unopened bag. I don't know if this is specific to sourdough bread, but it is super frustrating because two Costco-sized loaves take up quite a bit of space in the fridge!

That's seems odd to me. I make sourdough at home without using any oil (article said oil makes bread last longer(?)) and find it goes dry long before molding occurs, if at all. Usually get a good 3-4 days before it's been hard to eat.

I keep mine in a cloth sack in the cupboard if it makes any difference.

If your bread lasts longer than it takes you to eat it, your bread is too big, or it is not yummy enough to make you eat enough. Get yourself to a proper boulanger and eat proper bread!

Or I'd like to make enough bread that I don't have to make bread again really soon?

This is what my family does. We adjust the size of the loaves to have each one last about a day. Multiple loaves per batch. Someone is responsible for taking a loaf out of the freezer for the next day before going to bed.

It's obvious why you were downvoted. Its Rye or go home.

Since the COVID lockdown in February, we've mostly switched over to part-baked bread rolls, individually packaged and baked on demand - 3 minutes to heat the oven, 10 minutes baking, and you've got a fresh warm roll, and most importantly, it has a crisp crust.

It's a low labour medium between baking your own bread and buying bread almost every day, which is what I used to do. In fact I used buying bread as an excuse to get me out of the house when I used to work from home.

Interesting, I haven't noticed these sold but I haven't been looking. You buy at an ordinary grocery store? National brands? In the freezer section?

No, they are part baked, and sealed in a protective atmosphere (nitrogen, I expect).

Here:

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/fitzgeralds-2-sourdou...

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/bakery/bread-and-...

They last about a month in a pantry, unrefrigerated.

A significant fraction (if not all) supermarket bakery bread is shipped as frozen part-baked. This is roughly the same thing but in nitrogen rather than frozen.

Interesting! I see you are maybe in UK? I'm not sure this product exists in ordinary grocery stores in the USA.

I'm not sure what the quality is like, but Target sells some "take and bake" breads (at least in my area): https://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=take+and+bake

Trader Joe's also used to sell "half baked" breads, but I think those might have been discontinued?

You will also see this referred to as "parbaked", which I am assuming is a contraction of "part baked".

In large parts of Europe, an entire aisle is reserved for these types of productsin many supermarkets. Typically near the bread spreads section. Not sure whether this is common in the US.

Americans eat baked wheat product and think that it is “bread”.

It is not. It’s made from wheat but that’s where the similarities end.

Yes. I don't eat bread regularly at home, so some times, it'll be a few weeks in the fridge, and it's just fine (after a trip in the toaster). Leave that same bread out and it'll be mouldy within the first week or two. This is regular french bread bought at the local bakery.

Here in Denmark, we also have black bread, which are more normal to keep in the fridge, that bread does not seem to go stale the same way as french bread, but I also know some weirdos who keeps black bread outside the fridge :P

Mold is the real issue for me, i live in a humid area where breads molds in less than a week if left on the counter. Putting it in the fridge is just a necessity of life if you want a week or two of sandwiches from a loaf.

Well it likely is stale. Warming the bread in toaster will reverse the staling process. The the article mentions this.

You’re spot on about the mould.

The phenomena described by the author is called retrogradation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrogradation_(starch)

Since the COVID-19 situation happens all over the place, I'm doing one big groceries on Saturday for a whole week (that includes bottle water & sliced bread).

We freeze sliced bread and defrost it in microwave (so we defrost only slices we're gonna eat). It takes some time to calculate proper amount of time (depends on microwave power level) as if you heat it too long the crust of bread become stiff & no really tasty at all - but we figured that out and our defrozen bread tastes almost like freshly baked one.

In the end, it totally works for us, as if we would store unfrozen bread it would become dried up in a matter of 2-3 days.

Sliced frozen bread can actually go straight in the toaster if you give it a little extra time. If you want to eat it soft, it will defrost on the counter in maybe 30 minutes. My favorite is to freeze whole baguette. You can rub the exterior with water, wrap it in a cloth then bake for 8-10 min and it will come out like it's fresh baked.

This is all too much hassle for me, for several reasons.

I avoid that by eating knäckebröd / crispbread instead.

Several observations in hindsight:

I don't have hard evidence, but feel that bread lasted longer up until maybe 1990 to 2000. Afterwards it spiraled downwards.

The whole supply chain changed. What today would count as "artisanal/handmade/organic/bio" mostly was the old normal, up until that time frame. (At least where I live, in Germany.)

I remember from my childhood (I am 51 now) that even then there was a difference in longevity between industrial supermarket bread, which wasn't that common then, and bread from the bakery. My mother tried that supermarket stuff several times for financial reasons, and came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it because of the waste, which the bread from the bakery didn't cause. She even tried that freezing stuff, and toasting it in a pan, so that was common knowledge then, too. Didn't really matter. Bakery bread lasted maybe 3 to 4 days in a bread box. Supermarket bread got stale after a few hours(bought in the morning, bad in the evening, mold after 2 days at the latest. Bakery bread didn't.

Nowadays I have a factory outlet of an industrial bakery and two artisanal bakeries in walking/bicycling distance, so I can get that industrial stuff almost fresh from the conveyor belt, thereby eliminating any vagaries regarding transport.

It tastes and feels ok, but makes my nose run, sometimes even sneeze and phlegma in my upper throat. This happens with almost anything which I tried from supermarkets, too.

It doesn't happen with the artisanal/organic stuff from the bakeries, but I don't eat that much bread, living single, so it is either a waste, or hassle with freezing and toasting.

Btw. no problems/allergies with Gluten, or anything else, for that matter.

It doesn't happen with knäckebröd, which also doesn't get stale or moldy that fast, so I mostly eat that.

Got up at 3:01AM, made my green tea, and had 2 slices of Wasa Sesam dipped in that. All good, no sniffing and sneezing.

Anyways, don't eat that industrial stuff if you can avoid it. It is a chemical cocktail of additives nobody really knows the longterm interactions with your body, hidden behind cunning white labelling!

I keep the bread in its bag in the fridge - it doesn't go off and it doesn't go stale as long as the bag is securely closed.

My trick, is to keep the bread in the oven. It's almost air tight and I have the feeling that a bread stays fresh a couple of days longer than by any other method. Normally my oven is empty so I have some room there for free. And when I use the oven to heat i.e. a pizza I hope any fungi are killed.

Could someone explain why the thin flatbread known as the tortilla seems to last much longer in a sealed bag? Ordinary bread molds on me in 4-5 days. I have kept a bag of tortillas around for a couple weeks without any mold. They do get stale if one forgets to seal the zip-type bag.

The tortillas likely have have chemical leaving and extra preservatives. Make tortillas from scratch and they will also mold in a few days.

It depends. A chilled fridge is also a dehumidifier, so if the bread isn't stored in a tightly sealed bag, it may dry out and go stale in the fridge, before you can eat it. If you eat bread quickly enough, then that's not a problem.

The article addresses this; stale bread is still edible, and for the most part can be brought back by applying some heat. Moldy bread is just bad, and must be thrown away.

Does steaming stale bread (and then maybe toasting it again) bring it back to close to the desired state? Can that re-inject the moisture? Anyone tried? or is "staling" a non-reversible (at least to the tongue) process?

> A French baguette is not likely to ever mold

I have many points of data that this claim is false. :)

Our local store often has a sale on French baguettes, so when I'm there I pick up two. We almost never get through them both before one molds.

I've seen people store bread not in the fridge but in the freezer (this was in Germany), I thought it was weird, but I think now that it's a cool way to store bread for long periods of time.

Toasting bread from fridge has little difference than fresh unless you are talking artasinal breads meant to eat fresh. Otherwise freeze it and toast it, it will get 90% of the way there

During boot camp I remember the kitchen staff storing bread in the fridge because then soldiers would eat less bread.

Of course some soldiers just ate more jam, ham and smoked salmon instead.

my technique for baguette conservation : in the freezer You can store it for weeks up to a month I think. After that, simply in a oven, 120° celsius for 12-16 minutes

Just as an aside, your can freeze milk too - though it has to be in a strong container that doesn’t allow too much expansion or the fat will separate on defrosting.

I actually had a bread box at one point, and the bread got moldy after two days. Maybe it just needed to be cleaned, or maybe it trapped moisture and heat?

Two days is kind of surprising, if it was homemade. Ours would go four or five days before molding, so like everyone above, I cut mine the day after baking and freeze it.

I don't know but putting it in the freezer works. We usually buy bread every 2 weeks and put 2/3 of it into the freezer right off the bat.

We only store bread in a freezer, and use toaster to warm it up and toast it for consumption. This only really works with pre-sliced bread and serves 2 important functions:

1. Reduce the amount of bread we eat. You take out a slice and that's all you're going to eat, since it takes 2 minutes or so to toast it in the toaster.

2. Prevent bread from going moldy/dry/stale. You can enjoy a single loaf for a week this way.

How about not slicing it. Although my bread dries out towards the end ( 6 days? ), it does not mold.

i found that putting store-bought donuts in the fridge makes them last long enough (a week) to eat before going stale. and as a bonus, the hardened glaze is both easier on the fingers (and clothes) and enhances the sweetness. mmmmm, donuts!

This article bugged me. It spoke about the fridge as a preservation tool but failed to point to the freezer. The very important part of a fridge! We all know that the freezer plays a big role in preserving all our produce. I cut and freeze all the bread I buy and bake and when I defrost it, it’s top notch!

Refrigerated bread gets damp spots in it that ruin the texture for me. Bleh.

Does Storing Bread in the Fridge Make it Last Longer?

Not with a family of 5 to feed!

Does anyone here have any experience with solar-powered toasters?

tl;dr:

"Does storing bread in the fridge make it last longer? Yes."

But not mentioned is that it lasts even longer if you stick it in the freezer until you need it, because plain bread freezes and defrosts just fine.

yes.

tl;dr: it depends.

Private chef here -

Industrially produced bread: freeze (sliced) and toast when needed or eat fresh. Never fridge. Home baked: eat fresh use the leftovers for puddings, or blend and freeze and use as breadcrumbs for cooking.

https://gailsbread.co.uk/ Gail's bakery is the only place I know in the UK that can mass produce excellent bread. Their book is excellent.

Of course there are many excellent artisan producers everywhere too...

"yeet"?! What is "yeet"?

“To discard an item at a high velocity”

— https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Yeet

> ... Most of them are failing miserably. Not because the statements they are making are wrong, but because they fall prey to a common critical thinking mistake: failing to define our terms. ...

Article then goes on to cogitate for 1,500 words while introducing no data or experiment. Do an experiment or go home.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com