I should know this, or at least have the gumption and wherewithal to look it up, but…
Once you open a loaf of bread, you’ve introduced it to airborne germs, and its lifetime is considerably shortened. And even if you don’t open it and just keep it on a shelf, it’s not going to last forever, since it’s a bread and all. And if you freeze it, you can make it last a really long time.
I take all these to be given facts.
But what would happen if I opened up the bread (which had been on the shelf, not in the freezer), used maybe four or five slices, closed it, then put it in the freezer?
If you refreeze bread that’s been opened, does this prolong the life of the bread (or at least slow down the going-bad process), or is the bread pretty much doomed as soon as I open it?
Here’s why I ask. As a bachelor, I eat less than, say, a family. So when I buy a loaf of bread, I’ll eat maybe a couple of sandwiches and then not eat any more of it for a week or so. Naturally, the bread doesn’t like this, and turns green with envy… or something. Anyway, I then have to toss out the moldy bread. This is a waste! There’s gotta be a better way!
The mold spores start growing in the bread almost as soon as they come out of the oven…the colder and drier the environment, the slower the mold grows.
So a frozen loaf is still getting icky, just at a much slower rate than a non-frozen loaf. The drawback is a frozen/defrosted/frozen loaf tastes like poo because the water molecules get funky. (like the scientific lingo?)
Comprimise: put it in the fridge. Semi-icky, longer shelf life.
When you expose bread to airborne microbes, they start munching and bread gets green. You expose the bread, but freeze it, you put those microbes into suspended animation. They’ll get back to their green-making business as soon as they warm up.
I package slices of bread into plastic freezer baggies in 2s and 3s.
What you don’t use, you could just leave out to go stale, then throw in a coffee grinder or ziploc bag and munch 'em up for breadcrumbs to use for chicken or meatloaf or whatever… you can freeze breadcrumbs as well. Mix some up with cayanne, some herbs and parmasean and throw it in the freezer.
The wierdest thing: I’m not sure if my mom is just a downright horrible cook, but the bread she makes is really dense and I swear it does not go moldy. When I lived alone, she used to send me home with the stuff (it was good, don’t get me wrong) and my roommate and I would have a couple pieces and there it would sit… it’d just get hard -not stale & dry, but hard (think Charlie’s Angels Chinese Fighting Muffins… tinktink). I’d pity the person who tried to do a penecillin expirament on her bread…they’d be waiting a long, long time.
I freeze partly eaten loafs all the time. Here’s the low-down.
Bread will keep in the freezer a long time.
If you want to eat it, you’ll have to toast it. You can only toast it a little, so it’s not brown at all, and only slightly warm. You can probably thaw it if you want, but are you really going to remember to get it out an hour before you want a sandwich?
For a few weeks the bread is going to be just fine. But ice will be forming on it. So take a couple of pieces out of the bag, then rub them together over the sink. Flip 'em over and get the other sides. This gets most of the ice off.
As time goes on the bread will be less tasty. I’m not overly picky and don’t care. The icier the bread is, the more “freezer” taste it will have. It won’t take you long to figure out how much freezer taste you can stand.
Eventually, the bread will become desiccated. It will get so icy you don’t want to mess with it. That’s when you shove it to the back of the freezer and say, “I’ve got to throw that out someday.”
Cyn has a good idea, about putting 2 or 3 slices in plastic freezer bags. I’m sure that works much better, but I know I’d never do it. Even if you just shove the whole bag in the freezer, it will taste good for quite a while.
Around here, they make “small family” loaves, which have fewer slices than regular loaves. You might want to look for them. You should have them wherever you are, because God knows we’re not some on-the-bleeding-edge trendy city.
Also, consider buying packs of kaiser rolls or hamburger buns instead of loaves of bread.
If you freeze bread, you must completely thaw it before opening the package again. If you open it while the contents are still frozen you condense moisture from the room air onto the bread and introduce all sorts of wonderful flavors. The cost of a loaf of bread is so minimal, and the flavor and texture of unrefrigerated bread is so much better, I really do not worry about it too much.
A few simple measures will maximize the life of your bread, most of which is made with preservatives anyway. A short list;
[li] Always store your bread in a cool, dark place.[/li]
[li] Remove the heel the first time you use the bread.[/li][sup]DO NOT RETURN THE HEEL WITH BACTERIA ON IT TO THE LOAF[/SUP]
[li] Have the bag open as little as possible.[/li]
[li] Keep the loaf intact (even if sliced), avoid “fanning” the slices.[/li]
Following the above practices, I have had a loaf of bread last weeks without a hint of mould. And my bread box is on top of my refrigerator where it is warm, so you could probably do better.
Learn how to make croutons for your salad and work the last half of the loaf at the first sign of mold. Merely cut off or discard the moldy area and cube the rest. Dry in a low oven and toast if desired. Make stuffing, meatloaf, bread pudding or sprinkle them in soup. There are lots of ways to use bread cubes.
I like your plan, lesa. I don’t mind toasting the bread (and if need be, I can thaw it…).
I know that as time goes by, it won’t taste so good, but that’s true even if it’s nonfrozen bread. It’s just not as fresh, right?
I’ll have to look for the “family” bread, jayjay. I have seen “family” bread before, but I thought it was bigger than normal bread, for some reason (maybe if I had a family, it would all seem so clear…).
Thanks for all the tips, Zenster. Should I ever feel like making my lazy butt cook something, I’ll keep them in mind. As it is, my best pal in the whole wide world is my microwave. O, how I love thee, O microwave. (Plus the one I got, which can fit a good-size turkey in it, was only $20 at a yard sale and works really great!)
