Soon after the whole COVID mess prompted a resurgence in making bread at home, new bread bakers discovered that their homemade bread didn’t last as long as commercially produced bread. The primary reason, of course, is because the store-bought stuff has preservatives. While almost always used with a negative connotation in the media, preservatives aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Salt is a preservative. So is sugar. And so are many other foods, and some of them work to preserve bread, making it last a little longer by preventing the growth of mold. These natural preservatives and how to use them in homemade bread will be covered in tomorrow’s post.
Mold needs three things to grow—food (in this case, the bread), moisture (usually provided by the bread), and warmth. The following measures will help slow the development of mold on all breads—store-bought and homemade.
· Keep it cool
o Store bread in a cool place, like the counter (not my favorite) or a cabinet. Apparently there are some people on the planet who have enough drawers in the kitchen to dedicate one to bread, supposedly also a good choice.
o Avoid storing it above an oven, toaster, or microwave.
o Do not store it in the refrigerator, as this will make bread go stale faster.
o Do not store bread in direct sunlight, especially in a plastic bag in direct sunlight.
· Keep it dry
o Paper bags, linen bread bags, or kitchen towels can help keep bread dry. Some people also use waxed bread cloths.
o Avoid plastic bags for storage if possible in your climate. Plastic bags trap moisture. (This doesn’t work well in a desert, FYI.) On the other hand, some sources say you can use a plastic bag if you leave the bag open. (I’m really not so sure about this, okay? For those who don’t understand, I live in a desert. This means that if we are sitting next to an open window and pause to offer a blessing on the sandwiches before we eat them, the bread will start drying out before we say amen. And the prayer wasn’t overly long, either. When we lived in the Midwest, we could walk away from our sandwiches, and even if we came back two hours later, the bread was still soft.)
o A bread box apparently works well, but I have no experience with it, so I can’t really comment.
· Keep it clean
o Handle the bread as little as possible. Hands carry microbes that can foster the growth of mold. If slicing into a loaf, expose just what you need to cut off, keeping the rest of the loaf in the bag, and use the bag to hold the bread as you cut.
o Slice only the amount of bread you’ll be consuming at the meal. Slicing the bread may introduce contaminants and exposes more of the moist interior to mold spores and growth.
o Do not re-use plastic bags that contained moldy bread, even if it was just a little. The mold spores are still in there, ready to take action on your bread.
· Freeze it
o If you aren’t going to finish off a loaf within a few days, freeze it to prevent the growth of mold and going stale. Wrap well in plastic.
Links to related posts:
if you're old enough you'll remember every kitchen have a "bread box" sitting on the counter - it usually matched the cannister set next to it - You might even remember why "Wonder Bread" was a wonder back then >> it was the first retail bread to be sold loaf sliced in the package ....
ReplyDeleteWell, I am "old enough," but I think bread boxes are somewhat regional. I think perhaps they just aren't as popular in arid climates. My grandparents never had one in their kitchens, and I'm pretty sure I've seen one at a garage sale or even for sale in retail stores.
DeleteJennifer, tried to look up desert bread tricks. here's the best consensus snip
ReplyDeleteIt's no freezer, but a good breadbox will create an environment that balances humidity (which you want for a soft interior) and the air circulation (which you need to maintain a crusty crust). A large box is better because it will allow for maximum air circulation. Some recommend ceramic, but there are also bamboo and enamelware varieties to try. The more bread you put in the bread box, the higher the humidity level, so don't overfill the box. And avoid storing the bread in a paper bag in the bread box—this will trap moisture and just destroy the crust.
One trick I found several times is don't cut the bread from the end but from the middle so you can put the two halves' together to keep moisture in.
Also mentioned was keeping a stalk of celery in the bread box as it has little flavor, doesn't affect bread taste and keeps bread moist in arid areas. I suspect honestly that any fleshy greens might also work as it slowly gives up its moisture and dehydrates itself and thus shares moisture with bread. You can still toss that dehydrated veggie into your next soup anyway. :-)
They also mention uses for dried bread my FAV is Panzella. It's interesting how real Italian and Mexican cooking uses up older stuff and minimizes expensive meats and such. A lot of beans with meat as a flavoring item.
From a nutritional standpoint a rice and beans diet with an occasional egg (especially for pregnant ladies Folic Acid) is quite a decent survival diet. Vitamins C was covered by use of kale and tomatoes.
And here I was sure plastic bags were the only option for me. Thank you, Michael.
DeleteI have never ever heard of panzanella, so I had to go look it up. And now I have new recipes to try out. Thank you so much.