Refrigerating bread slows down mold growth…
This increasing the shelf life.
You don’t have to refrigerate bread. But you can with clear reason.
However, it will develop a stale flavor and texture in the fridge. To prevent this, freeze the bread. Home made bread often molds fast, so refrigerating or freezing the bread is a good option. Store bought bread can stay good for longer, so for the best taste storing it is outside the fridge is best. Source.
Nearly all American sliced white bread is basically flavorless because of the huge amount of dough conditioners they use, so it really doesn’t matter if if goes stale in the fridge as long as it lasts through the end of the week and I can have my sandwiches sans mold.
It also makes it go stale really quickly. You should never refrigerate bread.
Freeze it or keep it in the cupboard.
I mean it doesnt go stale that fast.
If you eat a sandwich or 2 a day you’ll go through the loaf faster than it will go stale in the fridge.
Only keep it in the cupboard if you are in low temp/humidity area. If you live in an area thats high temp/humidity and don’t run ac constantly its gonna get moldy even faster.
Mold can literally take hold overnight.
Also tortillas make a great alternative for regular bread for a majority of food. And lasts longer in and out of the fridge.
Very much depends on the bread. I wouldn’t refridgerate toast or other super white breads, but moist, dark, kernely ryebreads are supposed to be refrigerated. They dry out super easily otherwise.
Especially if you only use it for toast, as then it doesn’t matter that it goes stale faster in the fridge. Keeps a lot longer in the freezer though, but that has the downside of taking slightly longer to cook, and can be hard to separate sometimes.
Pro tip: always toast that shit. Everything that bread is used for is better when it’s toasted
We have found that the best way to store bread to maintain the nice texture and consistency is to leave it on a wooden board with the sliced side downwards. The crust seems to protect the inner part well without turning the bread too moist.
Seems counterintuitive, but just leaving it like that on the counter lets the bread stay nice for more than a week.
Yep, its the whole point of a crust right? Like when they baked covered pies to keep the filling fresh…when refrigeration wasn’t so readily available
I watched a video about this actually - iirc bread made with more oil stays longer, and bread made with more water gets stale and mouldy more quickly