Who hasn’t experienced it: Yesterday soft and delicious, today already hard and dry. If you want to enjoy your sandwich every day, you should store it properly. Many people still believe that bread stays fresh longer in the refrigerator. If you want to store bread properly, you have to pay attention to air circulation. We explain how your bread stays fresh and tasty for a long time.
When it comes to storage, it depends on the type of bread
How well and how long the loaf of bread lasts depends first of all on the type of bread. Wheat bread can stay fresh for up to two days if stored properly. Rye bread lasts up to four days and real wholemeal bread a whopping nine days. Generally, the darker the bread, the longer it will stay fresh.
If you want your bread to stay fresh long enough, it’s best to buy a whole loaf of bread. This way you can be sure that it does not contain any preservatives. A cut loaf is best placed on the cut edge, as the crust usually protects the inside of the bread from drying out.
If you are looking for food that will last forever, go for crispbread, rusks or canned bread. These are best if you want to stock up on an emergency or simply don’t like to go shopping.
Just leave bread in the paper bag for storage
You can usually get baked goods from the bakery in a paper bag. It is usually sufficient to keep the bread fresh by absorbing moisture. Also, the paper bag prevents the bread from drying out too quickly. However, after time, the bread becomes stale. Therefore, paper bags are not ideal for storage. Instead, you should do without a plastic bag altogether if you want to store the bread for a long time. Here, the moisture cannot escape, and the bread loses its crust and starts to mold faster. There are also more environmentally friendly alternatives such as paper or cloth bags.
Storing bread in the bread bin
The practical bread bin comes in a wide variety of designs. The decisive factor is that the bread bin is breathable, allowing you to store and enjoy the bread for longer. In classic models, the excess moisture escapes through the ventilation holes and prevents the bread from going moldy. The bread is welcome to stay in the paper bag. It prevents the plastic bread bin from affecting the taste.
In an electric vacuum bread bin, a pump is used to suck out the air at the touch of a button until there is a vacuum in the bread bin. This is to keep the bread fresh longer. In order for the vacuum to last, the container must be well sealed. Since the seal also wears off with regular use, the electric bread bins always let air out so that the vacuum can continue to exist.
Store bread in the refrigerator?
A widespread myth is that bread stays fresh the longest in the refrigerator. That’s why every seventh American keeps his bread in the refrigerator. However, bread becomes dry much faster in the refrigerator and loses its taste on top of that.
This is due to the fact that thanks to the optimal conditions in the refrigerator, retrogradation takes place much more intensively and therefore faster. At cool temperatures between 19 and 44 degrees, the process is accelerated. In this case, the water in the bread is released to the outside and evaporates. In fact, retrogradation is the reason why bread tastes stale. The optimal temperature for proper storage is approximately between 53 and 64 degrees.
Is there a lot of bread left over after a party or have you been experimenting with a bread maker all Sunday and baked too much? Then you can freeze the bread, whether whole or sliced, in the freezer. Later, you can defrost the bread and put it in the toaster.
Store bread and avoid mold
If there is already mold on the bread, you should dispose of it altogether. Even if only a few spores are visible, you can be sure that the whole loaf is infested. You should clean the bread box thoroughly afterwards to get rid of the remaining spores. The best way to do this is with vinegar. To do this, simply mix vinegar with water and clean the stainless steel container at regular intervals.
