This is Why You Shouldn’t Refrigerate Your Bread



Bread stales in just one day if you put it in the fridge. For best results, head to the freezer, where it stays fresher for up to a month.

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35 Comments

  1. Used to be a bread delivery guy…and also a consumer of bread. Love it
    buy bread ( size pkg) understanding that you SHOULD eat it within a few days for optimal freshness… ya will get a few more days most of the time…after that it "starts' to go bad..i.e.mold.

  2. Your breed sucks if it gets moldy in 2 days at room temperature, its because it doesn't have a thick and crunchy crust. You have to store your breed in a wooden box covered in a paper bag, this way it can stay for 5 days. But sometimes it can mold faster especially when is extremely hot outside, then I buy less bread and I finish it in 2 days. But I'm shore that American breed sucks and it's all sliced and covered in plastic bags with a lot of sugar in them.

  3. Nah. I kept my bread out on the kitchen table and got moldy. Now, i keep my bread in my fridge (at 3 out of 5 setting, 5 being the coldest) and its been good since because i can finish the small loaf in a week.

  4. Is this homade bread ? Mine has mold in 2-3 days. Home-made white bread. I live in Malaysia where the weather is hot and humid. Any tips on making the loaf last longer? Usually I store it in a plastic. Container

  5. I experimented with this and totally disagree. My bread keeps up to 8 days in the refrigerator, sometimes longer. At room temperature it never lasts past 4-5 days. I do agree with freezing though; however, you may want to discuss how to defrost the bread after freezing.

  6. I disagree. I can keep bread for 1 or 2 months past the typical molding time. But…. I steam my bread before use for a few minutes. Seems completely fresh as if it was baked recent. And if you bake it after steaming, it brings a dry outside after steaming.

  7. Commercially made bread with preservatives keeps forever except in high humidity, while homemade bread molds quickly. Freeze bread in slices and defrost in a microwave for 10 seconds to use it. Even at room temperature it thaws fast. Make your sandwich before leaving the house; it's thawed and ready to eat by lunchtime. I've found that he is right: Bread stales rapidly in the refrigerator.

  8. "Bread left in the fridge might appear stale. But, explains Myhrvold, that’s not due to a lack of moisture — refrigerated bread seems hard because of starch retrogradation, or the re-crystallization of the starch in the bread. “It [the bread] will seem stiffer and we associate stiffness, or lack of softness, with staleness,” says Myhrvold. But, the bread is less likely to actually go stale in the fridge (as opposed to leaving it in a bread box on your counter).
    You can reverse the starch crystallization by warming up your bread."

    https://www.chatelaine.com/food/kitchen-tips/store-bread-in-the-fridge/

  9. Your math doesn't add up. You said bread in the refrigerator stales in one day, and at room temperature it stales in 2 days. You later said refrigerated bread stales six times faster than bread at room temperature.

  10. You explicitly say you tested rustic bread. What about store-bought pre-sliced sandwich bread? That's designed to last a week or so on the counter/in a breadbox anyway.
    I keep a loaf of hearty whole wheat sandwich bread in the fridge, since it takes me a month or so to go through the whole thing. By the end of that month, the bread is certainly sub-optimal, but works fine for a midnight PB&J or weekday breakfast toast, which is what I keep it around for.
    Fresh bread from the local bakery or my own kitchen is certainly not as good after the first 24 hours, and only the freezer can save it from that fate. But in my experience, pre-sliced commercial sandwich bread – especially hearty whole wheat/multigrain – is another story.

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