Bread Boxes- Effective at Keeping Bread Fresh?

Factual Questions
1

Since moving out of my parents’ house a few years back, I have revelled in doing things that would make my mother cringe. Like immediately purchasing a butter dish and leaving my butter on the counter.

Recently, I bought a bread box, because it would match my appliances and hide the unsightly bag o’ bread sitting on the counter. One of the things I hated most about my mom was she would freeze the bread. It used to kill me because she wouldn’t bother to defrost or toast the bread, she’d just let it sit for a few minutes, by which time it wouldn’t be frozen exactly but it would still be cold. Urgh, it was so gross.

So I got this fancy stainless steel bread box, and asked her if bread boxes had any purpose. “Oh no,” she assured me, “they’re just decorative.” Well, being single now and since my freeloading “guy on the couch” friend moved to a new city for school, I don’t use as much bread as I used to. And before I got the bread box, since I refused to freeze or even refrigerate my bread, oftentimes it would turn into a 5th grader’s science fair project halfway through the loaf.

So, just finished my first loaf of bread as a single gal without any mold. I fully expected every time I opened the bread box I would find my bread all green and fuzzy, but it didn’t happen. Even the freshly-baked rolls I got from the bakery lasted, according to the date on the sticker, at least a month.

This seems to fly in the face of my mother’s previous assurances that my bread box was a waste of money. It seems to me that it was quite effective at keeping my bread fresh (the rolls were a bit hard, but I used the last 2 to dip in my soup so it really didn’t matter). What is everyone else’s experience with bread boxes? It seems like they would work to hinder the bread’s exposure to light and moisture and mold spores, even though they’re not exactly hermetically sealed. I doubt there are any studies on this, just wondered if this was a fluke or what. If they do work, I might have to buy my father one for his birthday. I know that he, too, despises frozen bread.

So, do bread boxes have a purpose other than being useful at ascertaining the size of an unknown object during a game of Twenty Questions?

2

If the bread was wrapped in plastic, I can’t imagine the box did anything but keep out light, which a cupboard or pantry would do as well. Maybe you just don’t keep the bag sealed well enough.

Of course, if it annoys your mother, a breadbox may be worth its weight in gold!

3

I think the main purpose of bread boxes is to keep critters away from your bread. But they’d also help moderate the moisture level that your bread is exposed to.

4

Sorry for the hijack, but the obvious mistake here is not defrosting or toasting frozen bread.
I freeze my bread, toast it when required and it’s delicious!

5

I know, when I got old enough to make my own sandwiches I always toasted the bread, and it came out all right. It just disgusted me when my mom would offer to make me and my dad a sandwich and then give me some disgustingly cold and slightly mushy bit of ickiness parading around like a piece of bread. Ewwww.

I just refuse to freeze my bread on principle, because my mother did it. :smiley:

6

I’d bet that’s correct, sort of like the big tins used to store saltine crackers. A wooden bread-box would be less effective though, against this theory. Rodents used to be much more of a factor, virtually everything had to be stored with an eye toward a slew of little critters with all the time in the world trying to eat yer’ stuff.

7

Bread goes stale even if it is sealed up air tight. What happens is that the drier crust absorbs moisture from the rest of the loaf, which leaves the crust chewy and the loaf dry. Temperature affects the rate at which this happens. Refrigerator temperatures accelerate the process, but at freezer temperatures the process is nearly completely halted. I don’t think bread boxes do anything apart from look nice.

8

You might want to check out this movie.

(The bit about freezing food was divine.)

9

We had a bread box when I was growing up. As I recall, mold was fairly common. I keep my bread in the fridge now and never have any mold issue.

10

The main reason I got a bread box was to keep vermin out of my bread. Yes, my first couple of apartment were slummy, what can I say?

I don’t think bread boxes have much effect on the rate at which it goes stale. In a dry climate it might slow moisture loss. If you get a mold infestation you really need to scrub it good, becuase if there are spores lurking in the corners it can spread to any bread you put in there.

11

I didn’t think breadboxes served any purpose other than keeping the bread out of the way, but who knows? Bread will definitely mold in a breadbox, though, as Finagle noted.

But RedRosesForMe, you have the perfect setup for a science experiment. Buy two loaves of bread, and keep one in the breadbox and one on the counter. Each time you need two slices of bread, take one from each loaf (so they experience the same “conditions” other than location). Then you can observe if one stays good longer than the other.

12

Is the box in the shape of a pyramid? That would explain it.

Just kidding. :slight_smile:

13

We used to have a breadbox and yes, bread will go moldy in one. I freeze my bread as soon as I get it home and take out the new loaf when I have two slices left in the old. I find that freezing it extends its shelf life such that it will stay fresher longer on the counter than had I bought it fresh and left it out. In fact the only bread to go moldy here in a very long time was bread I didn’t first freeze. Apparently, freezing doesn’t kill mold but maybe it slows it down so that when the bread warms up it doesn’t go moldy as fast.

I think much also has to do with how much of the loaf you touch. I’ve noticed that cheese will go moldy much quicker if I touch it (i.e. hold it to cut it). I’m now careful to keep the plastic wrap between my fingers and the cheese at all times and I try not to touch any of the bread but the slices I’m about to use.

14

If you make your own bread, it might make sense. James Beard says that wrapping a fresh loaf in cloth is the way to go, so your glorious crust won’t go soft in a plastic bag or a Tupperthing. A vented box may be a good substitute.

Otherwise, it’s only useful as a unit of measure, as in “bigger than a breadbox.” That phrase nearly faded from view as the breadbox became quaint.

15

My experience is that bread will go stale faster in a refrigerator (it won’t get moldy, just stale). I usually take a few slices of fresh bread and keep it on the counter (in a baggie) & freeze the rest immediately. However, frozen & thawed bread, though it tastes ok, is never as good as fresh. What I really want is a bread delivery man, someone who delivers what I need for that day.