We buy bread, but we don’t eat it fast enough. So we end up eating half a loaf and throwing the other half away. It gets mould on it pretty quick.
How long is bread supposed to last?
What storage methods (other than freezing) will keep it for longer?
I’m not interested in freezing and defrosting slices when I need them; I’d rather just buy some more at that point. But how can I optimise my bread-storage strategies?
Have you tried keeping it in the fridge? That’s what we do when we’re not going through bread fast enough, and it extends the life for about a week longer than non-fridged.
I just checked on my bread in the fridge at work. I still have about eight slices from a loaf I bought two months ago. Nary a sign of any mould. Maybe they don’t like the taste of the kind I buy. The work fridge is usually kept below 40º F.
That’s basically what I do - I like to eat buns for lunch, and I can’t eat a pack of 12 buns fast enough before they mold, so I put them in the freezer and take out three or four at at time. Half a loaf frozen/fresh at a time should clear the OP’s problem right up.
Also, if you’re making sandwiches for lunch, frozen bread is preferable to fresh bread because it’s easier to spread things on it, and it’s nice and fresh by lunchtime (after keeping your lunch at a healthy temperature all morning).
I find I can’t keep defrosted bread fresh. You have a tiny window in which to use it. I’d take it out of the freezer to make a sandwich, leave it while I went for a shower, and it’d be good. But if I took a shower and, I dunno, ran out to the corner store for a few minutes I’d come back to dry bread. But sometimes popping it in the microwave to defrost would make it too moist.
I figure a loaf of bread is cheap, so I’m willing to deal with the waste now.
Depends what you want to use the bread for. I keep half of the loaf in the freezer, but only use that one for toast. Freezing bread causes it to dry out faster, but if you’re planning to make dark toast, that’s not a big deal.
The other half of course needs to be kept in some sort of relatively airtight container and used up before it goes stale. That’s not so hard with only half a loaf.
Of course, if you’re talking unsliced bread, it gets a bit trickier…
I hesitate to ask because I don’t want you to think I think you’re stupid, but you are defrosting it in a plastic bag, right? Not just out on a counter top?
Candyman, if it’s the taste you don’t like, I don’t think I can help you. Maybe try to find a cooler place in your kitchen to store it - like away from the stove or any heat sources? Maybe a breadbox would actually help you.
Protect the bread from vermin, from rodents to insects. Hopefully, this is not really a problem in your household, but it is one reason to use them.
Moisture that evaporates from the bread tends to stay in the box, increasing the ambient humidity and helping to reduce further moisture loss. This helps keep the bread from drying out and getting stale.
Physically protects the bread from being squashed.