Bread Storage, Explained
You Shouldn't Have to Freeze Good Bread
Freezing works. That is why so many kitchens end up with a freezer full of sliced bread. But it is a workaround, and for the loaf you are eating this week, it is not the best one.
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No More Chiselling Bread Apart
You know the routine. Slice the loaf the day you buy it, bag it, freeze it. Then remember, the night before, to take tomorrow's slices out. Forget, and it is toast or nothing. The slices freeze together and have to be prised apart with a knife.
And bread that has been frozen and thawed is never quite the loaf you bought.
The Freezer Is for Bread You Are Saving
This is worth being straight about: freezing does what people think it does. At freezer temperature, new starch crystals largely stop forming.
Food scientists stored bread at three temperatures: room temperature (25°C), fridge temperature (4°C) and freezer temperature (−18°C). They measured how quickly the starch recrystallised in each. They reported that at 4°C the rate was the highest of the three.
At freezer temperature, new starch crystals largely stopped forming.
Aguirre, Osella, Carrara, Sánchez & Buera. "Effect of storage temperature on starch retrogradation of bread staling." Starch/Stärke, 2011.
For the bread you're saving
The half-loaf you won't reach this week, the spare from a two-for-one, the bake you made too much of. The freezer is exactly right for these.
For the bread you're eating
The loaf you are working through now. It belongs on the bench, at room temperature, as long as what it sits in does not make it sweat or dry out.
Keep Bread Fresh Without Freezing It
The reason people freeze bread they are about to eat is that the bench lets them down: plastic brings mould, paper brings a loaf going hard by day two.
On a woven cotton bag it does the same job for a loaf. The cotton breathes; the beeswax lining slows the rate moisture leaves. The inside keeps enough moisture to stay soft, and the crust stays dry enough that it is far less likely to go leathery or grow mould.
It is not a replacement for your freezer. It is what lets you keep this week's loaf on the bench, and save the freezer for the bread that actually needs it.
One honest note. It works best on a whole loaf you slice as you go. Pre-sliced bread has far more cut surface exposed, and it dries faster whatever you keep it in.
If you want to try it on your next loaf
Try it on your next loaf. If it doesn't keep your bread better than what you do now, send it back.
