1,504 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

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.

12 K 4.7/5 (14 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Bread Preservation Baking Bag Canvas Cotton Linen Crust Crumb

Last modified on: June 11^th 2022

For this post: Comment Follow Send to a friend

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

Should potatoes be washed twice?

Let's say you have to make a recipe that includes potatoes, let's say sliced, you'll most likely proceed as follows: Peel the potatoes, wash them, slice them, wash them again, pat them dry and add them to your recipe. But there's a "but": depending on the recipe, the second washing may be a bad...
May 19^th 20252,061 15

Grilled bacon is much better in the oven

Some recipes call for thin slices of bacon to be cooked and added to the recipe, or to prepare one of those delicious breakfasts known as "à l'Anglaise".
April 25^th 20251,9235

The thermometer is your friend

There are many recipes or foods that require a (very) precise cooking temperature: foie gras, sugar for caramel, meats and fish, and not forgetting pastries. For these few examples, getting the cooking temperature wrong can spoil the whole recipe or dish: undercooked, it's no good or misses the...
April 10^th 20252,2625

Travel cakes

You may have come across the term "travel cakes" ("gateaux de voyage" in french) for certain pastries, so let's take a look at what they're all about.
January 27^th 20253,719

The aromatic power of sugar

In the kitchen, sugar doesn't just sweeten, it also has an exceptional ability to capture flavors. Combined with aromatic ingredients, such as citrus zest, it acts as a veritable sponge for aromas. By taking the time to let the sugar soak up the flavors, you can transform your desserts, making...
December 25^th 20244,1625

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

The taste of raw tomatoes

Let's take a look at tomatoes, which are still in full bloom at the end of summer (as I write these lines), and which make for delicious salads. I had already talked to you about the interest of peeling tomatoes, which gives them an extraordinary sweetness in the mouth, but let's talk about the...
September 8^th 201813 K4.9

Fruits which can ruin your jelly

There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...
March 6^th 201374 K4.0

How to zest a fruit?

You will have no doubt noticed that many recipes call for the zest of citrus fruit. The zest is that outer layer of the skin which adds so much flavour to a dish. There are many different ways to peel off the zest and various tools are available. Here is a summary of the “dos and don'ts” of...
November 5^th 201344 K3.8

The window-pane test in bread-making

The home bread-makers often ask themselves “Have I kneaded my dough long enough?” . A good question, as dough that is insufficiently kneaded will not rise properly or will fall flat when the top is slashed, which is very frustrating. To know when the dough is ready, one can rely on the length...
June 16^th 202191 K 23.9

There is vanilla and vanilla

The vanilla is a delicious taste that can be found in many many dessert recipes, creams (the cream and the cream for example), ice creams, but also cakes and entremets. Whenever you need to add this vanilla note, you have several possible choices because vanilla is commercially available in...
December 14^th 201710 K5