The blog of cooking-ez.com

The preservation of bread


The preservation of bread
Eating fresh bread is always a delight, the crust crumbles deliciously, you take full advantage of the taste of your bread (80% of this taste is in the crust), it is a fleeting moment to enjoy.
Who hasn't already eaten the crouton or croutons of his baguette, on the way back from the bakery?

Unfortunately, after a few hours, it gets a bit spoiled, the bread naturally softens, and later on it dries out again.

Let's see what happens and how to try to limit it.
11K 4.7/5 based on 14 reviews
Grade this page:

Last modified on: June 11th 2022

Keywords for this post:BreadPreservationBakingBagCanvasCottonLinenCrustCrumb
The preservation of bread

Out of the oven

pain bien cuit

The bread is unbaked, it leaves the oven which is at 250°C approximately, and will wait on a rack or a grid a few minutes before going on the shelves, it is what the bakers call "ressuage".
It cools down slowly, especially if it is a big piece, and for the moment it remains crispy, no secret it is the best time to taste it!

With time comes the staling

Then, as time goes by, some of the moisture that is contained in the heart of the bread by the cooking, will slowly migrate from the crumb (center) to the crust (periphery), it does not change its taste, but the crust softens and the initial crispness goes away...
You can't do anything against that, it's in the order of things in baking, but note that it's not as fast on a well or very well baked bread, as on a poorly or under baked one.
It must even happen, in time, the bread must evacuate some of its water otherwise it becomes elastic.
This softening is also accentuated by a poor quality of bread (flours, workmanship, fermentation), you may have already seen those tragic undercooked and softened baguettes, with which it is possible to tie a knot without breaking it.

But no bread escapes it, that's how it starts to stale more or less quickly: It ends up losing almost all its internal moisture to become dry.

pain rassi



What to do?

As I said, we cannot prevent, but we can limit, a little, the staling in time, here are some tracks:

- I have already mentioned it, but it is important to remember, a well baked bread will keep longer than a bread that is not
- A sourdough bread will keep better and longer than a yeast bread
- A well-baked sourdough bread, even better.
- Once the bread has cooled down (this is very important), you can store it in something closed, the ancients used a bread bin, a kind of wooden box lined with cloth, and we would tend to use a plastic bag now.

It's a mistake to use a plastic bag, because it keeps your bread soft, but it quickly becomes rubbery, and your bread needs to breathe anyway.
A much better solution is a canvas bag (cotton, linen...), it keeps your bread in good conditions, letting it breathe without letting it completely dry as if it was in the open air.

sac à pain

You can buy one of course, but if you know how to saw, which I don't, a cotton bread bag is (I'm told) a pretty easy thing to do.

Dry bread?

If you find yourself with dry bread one day, don't throw it away, in fact we should never throw away bread, it was just unthinkable with my grandparents' generation.
Here are a few ways to use it anyway:

- There is dry and dry, put it in the toaster, and what you thought was dry might become soft enough for a breakfast sandwich
- Dry enough? Make French toast out of it, or quiche, or croutons
- Too dry? Turn it into homemade breadcrumbs


To sum up: Staling and drying of bread is normal, but you can limit staling by storing bread in a canvas bag (not plastic).


Lasts posts
Clean your mixer easily
Clean your mixer easily
If you use a "bowl" or "blender" mixer, as opposed to a plunger, you've probably noticed that it's a bit of a hassle to clean it after use. And yet, with a simple trick, it can be done very quickly. See how here.
1,4955 June 26th 2024
Preserving egg yolks
Preserving egg yolks
If you're using only the egg whites in a recipe (such as meringues ), you'll need to store the yolks until you're ready to use them again. There's nothing very complicated about this in principle - all you have to do is chill them, but there are a few pitfalls to be avoided in practice.
2,0195 June 18th 2024
Preservative oil, an asset for taste
Preservative oil, an asset for taste
When you prepare a dish using an ingredient that has been preserved in fat, for example a springtime mixed salad with tuna in oil or sun-dried tomatoes, you're probably going to make a french dressing (vinaigrette) next. In that case, why not use the preserved oil from the tuna or tomatoes?
2,1825 June 5th 2024
Don't throw away disposable piping bags
Don't throw away disposable piping bags
Nowadays, it's fairly easy to find what professionals use as piping bags, i.e. disposable or "single-use" plastic ones. They're practical, functional and inexpensive, but disposable? That's debatable...
3,5695 May 28th 2024
Should asparagus really be cooked in bunches?
Should asparagus really be cooked in bunches?
You'll probably read recipes here and there explaining how to cook asparagus "en botte", i.e. in a small package (the famous "botte"). Is this really the right way to cook asparagus?
2,7245 May 22th 2024
Other pages you may also like
Candied fruits: don't get ripped off
Candied fruits: don't get ripped off
Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
54K 24.2 June 21th 2017
From website to blog
From website to blog
Hello everyone, Today I'm inaugurating the cooking-ez.com "blog". The idea is to have a space for discussion open to everone, but not necessarily linked to a particular recipe or page. I hope the posts will be sufficiently interesting that you'll enjoy reading and discussing them. The...
16K3.9 January 1st 2011
In praise of slow cooking
In praise of slow cooking
You will no doubt have noticed that in cookery, it's often the actual cooking process that gets neglected. This is understandable; it comes at the end of the recipe and getting the dish in the oven is something of a relief (ah, that's done!), which frees us to cope with what's left: tidying the...
37K4.2 February 9th 2011
The secret of cooking until "done"
The secret of cooking until "done"
This is a real chef's skill: being able to look at a fish fillet cooking and say, "Stop – that's enough, it's cooked". I always admire this ability to see at a glance if something is done. It is what sets the professionals apart from us mere amateurs. And it's true that how fish is cooked is...
16K4.4 November 26th 2012
The skin side of the fish first?
The skin side of the fish first?
When it comes to cooking fresh fish, if it's filleted with its skin on and you're planning to pan-fry it in a little olive oil, for example, you might ask yourself the following question: Which side, skin or flesh, should come into contact with the pan first?
19K4.4 February 13th 2021
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page