Is it okay to refrigerate bread?

This is not the way to start 2021.

sure, you can even freeze the bread, and reheat it directly in the oven, no thawing required

Yes but it will dry it out. Frozen bread tastes awful-- don't listen to r2.

I refrigerate it. Since I am already low class anyhow I dont give a shit what that makes me

Fun fact- Walmart's "freshly baked bread" comes in frozen.

I live alone and would occasionally buy the 12-pack croissants from Costco. The expiration day is usually just few days and no way can I eat them all right away so I just freeze them.

Everything can be frozen except milk and bananas.

R3 that's because you don't know how to reheat it properly in the oven, like R5 said about freshly baked bread sold in grocery stores, almost all of them are shipped in frozen.

Bananas can be frozen if you want to use them later for smoothies or banana bread.

Refrigerate your bread, OP. That's not what is making you low class.

It snows in Minneapolis and we organise to o grocery shopping once every 3 weeks. And we get fruit and veg once every 3 weeks.

[quote] Walmart's "freshly baked bread" comes in frozen.

A shop in Australia sells "freshly baked bread" and on the back of the plastic packaging it says 'Pre-baked In Ireland'.

I toast bread after it's been refrigerated or frozen and it's fine.

R7...I freeze milk all the time. No issues.

Whole grain breads especially are fine before& after being refrigerated.

R14 Do you freeze the milk in the milk bottles?

Just like it's ok to leave butter out at room temp all day.

Just use my mantra: cold bread., warm butter.

[quote]I freeze milk all the time.

Why?

R17 Mantras like that are more meaningful if you say whether you live in Minneapolis or Miami-Florida.

OP, have you been eating frozen dinners and packaged mashed potatoes your whole life? Even my six-year old nephew knows how to store perishable foods.

OP get out the house some and go to your local pond and feed the ducks the bread you can finish in time, it will be a nice respite from this dilemma.

R20 Most men have had NO training in domestic skills.

Elder Thread

R22 Most Industrial Arts and Consumer and Family Economics classes require all students to take a least a semester of each and have been since the 1980s.

R23 Thread for men who know how to manage their lives and not rely on pre-packed plastic food and external servants.

Wasn’t this the topic of one of our knock down/drag out threads in the past? Refrigerating bread?

BREAD IS EVIL!! CARBS ARE EVIL!!! MARY!!! Why the HELL are you consuming empty calories? Only alcohol and breath mints are acceptable

R26 Well, it never reached the heights of straining/draining pasta.

OK R24, I guess I must have left school in 1979.

But are those Industrial Arts and Consumer and Family Economics classes compulsory?

I can't imagine all the current hipsters, gangstas and urban baby-daddies attending those classes.

Do you store your milk at room temperature?

Bread starts to stale as soon as it is baked. Unless you don’t care about wasting food or you like to feed the pigeons, there’s no reason to speed up the process of making it inedible.

R27 Are the breath mints to cover the smell of the alcohol?

R31 Correct!! Marry me?

Breath mints are all made with artifical sweeteners now so zero calories.

I had the same issue with bread going stale before I could use it all. So I switched to English muffins (the type sold from the refrigerated case, not the bread aisle). They stay fresh for weeks.

Numerous studies over years reaches same conclusion; placing bread in fridge makes it go stale faster. If you want bread to last longer and or for other reasons cannot consume entire loaf before it goes bad place it in freezer. Then take out slices as needed and either toast or sit and allow to defrost. Suppose you could also zap frozen slices in microwave for a few seconds to get them soft as well.

I don’t find that anything tastes as good after you free it

[Quote] Numerous studies over years reaches same conclusion; placing bread in fridge makes it go stale faster.

Really? There are numerous studies on this?

Don't refrigerate your bread, OP. It will still mold, perhaps even faster.

In my experience, freezing bread renders it less susceptible to mold after it's thawed. It will last longer at room temperature if it's been frozen first.

R37 Here’s one, who knew I was keeping it at ambient temperature all this time?

The problem with refrigerating bread is the dryness of the refrigerator. It sucks the moisture out of the bread. This is not an issue with the freezer as the moisture freezes before it can evaporate.

Eat it from the bag as soon as you buy it, then it won't ever need refrigeration.

R41 sounds like my bf.

Wow, there, bread boy--bread is just sugar waiting to metabolize instantly. Eat some broccoli fresh out of the steamer.

[quote] sure, you can even freeze the bread,

But only if you have frozen butter to go with it.

[quote] I don’t find that anything tastes as good after you free it

So you’re not on board with the whole cage-free eggs thing, huh?

“Lock those fuckers up!”

[quote] A shop in Australia sells "freshly baked bread" and on the back of the plastic packaging it says 'Pre-baked In Ireland'.

What the hell do the micks know about baking bread?!

[quote] I live alone and would occasionally buy the 12-pack croissants from Costco. The expiration day is usually just few days and no way can I eat them all right away

Amateur!

This is a good thread. I never know what to do with bread, either. I can never eat it fast enough. They should sell smaller loaves.

I’m beginning to think the only way around this is to bake your own bread each week!

Lived in Ireland - their bread is ten times better than any I've found in an American supermarket. Not sure why. Although... ours lasts for days, theirs only one or two days. So I guess it's the preservatives that makes ours taste like crap - or rather, cardboard. Some whole wheat breads taste like dirt to me (in the US anyway).

Someone asked why freeze milk? Because you don't get it very often? Like you only shop once a month and get several gallons, for example.

You're suppose to pour some out to leave room for it to expand but sometimes mine still cracks the plastic. Put it in a plastic bad or bowl or something to keep it from making a mess. It tastes great but takes a while to defrost in the fridge. (I'm afraid to defrost at room temp so I just wait a couple days and then it's fine - I even like having a few ice crystals left in it)

* plastic bad = bag

I usually buy bread when it’s 2 for price of one . I put one in the freezer and one in the fridge . This time of year your could keep one out if you eat a lot of bread . I also buy English muffins and freeze them. I take out one still frozen and toast it to golden brown. Delicious!

I generally refrigerate store bought bread - counterintuitive since it had preservatives, but it doesn't change the taste much if one does..

If it is one from a bakery, it can be left on the counter for a few days but eventually needs to have something to stop it from becoming too dry and/or changing.

[quote] Breath mints are all made with artifical sweeteners now so zero calories.

Breath mints can also cause the runs. I think it's the artificial sweetener aspartame.

Keep bread out at room temp with some dessicants to keep it from molding.

[Quote] I’m beginning to think the only way around this is to bake your own bread each week!

I have a bread maker. The problem is the end product is so good, I usually eat it within 2 days

[quote] Like you only shop once a month and get several gallons, for example.

Jesus! How much milk do you drink?!

[quote] I think it's the artificial sweetener aspartame.

We didn’t ask part of you, but you told us anyway.

[quote] OP get out the house some and go to your local pond and feed the ducks the bread you can finish in time, it will be a nice respite from this dilemma.

Oh Please don't feed bread to ducks, it is even worse for them than it is for you, you are killing them.

God no. I’d rather die.

I have found if you buy a more expensive bread and refrigerate it, it doesn't dry out or get tasting funky like cheap white or brown bread. It can take me two to three months to eat a loaf of bread. I buy Nature's Own Multigrain Loaf which can be anywhere from $2.50 a loaf at Walmart, to $4.00 plus at other stores and it stays just as nice in the refrigerator as it does on the shelf but no mold.

I bake fresh bread every 10 days or so. I freeze one and use the other for toast, sandwiches, etc. I have saved lots of money over the years.

Is R35 the same person as R39? Because the study linked in R39 says the exact opposite or what R35 claimed. The study concluded bread stays fresher after the first 2 or 3 days if it is refrigerated.

[quote] In the graphs in figure 1 in the early days of storage, whether we refer to white bread, semi-white bread and black bread sensory characteristics better stored at room temperature, a situation that changed after 48-72 hours, when stored at room temperature characteristics of bread is deteriorating with higher speed. As shown in Figure 1, in terms of organoleptic bread stored at refrigeration temperature keeps more features to the end of storage and is good for the consumer and on the seventh day.

[quote] The expiration day

R6 it's actually "best use by" date, for the grocery products, those printed "best use by" date is quite arbitrary, I never take them seriously, especially for packaged goods like coffee, cereal, canned soup, candies, bars... anything that is not perishable, it's perfectly fine to eat them long past those best use by dates.

The BBC made a documentary about bread that was more interesting than it sounds.

The experts therein said refrigerating bread will make it go off/stale markedly quicker than not. Something about the dampness, as I recall.

You’re better off with a bread bin.

Put it in the freezer, and move a few slices at a time to the fridge.

^^ or the room-temp breadbox.

[quote] I bake fresh bread every 10 days or so. I freeze one and use the other for toast, sandwiches, etc. I have saved lots of money over the years.

How much fucking money can you save by not buying bread?

To the strange milk freezer above, I can’t be bothered to look up your thread number, you know you can buy shelf stable milk in cartons for the last three decades that last years and tastes the same right?

R67...You are arrogant arent' you? Do the math. At $5 per loaf to buy and 50 cents to make, it is a great saving. Lots of little savings add up. I'm glad you never had to pinch pennies, but some of us do.

I hardly ever bought bread before the pandemic. Now working at home I make sandwiches several times a week. I’ve found the brand I buy (Orowheat) seems to never mold no matter how far past expiration it gets. It’ll dry out before I can use it all. They’ve got to be putting something weird in that stuff.

People years ago did not refrigerate bread which is why kitchens had bread boxes. And of course they were eaten in a timely fashion.

A loaf of bread was not supposed to last for months.

I always freeze bread. Never had an issue.

[quote] At $5 per loaf to buy

What kind of bread do you think is $5 a loaf?!

OP, you might as well smash the Piéta with a sledgehammer!

R74, next on my list

r12 this bullshiiit in low-priced commodities is why thew world is circling the drain. Our bread should come from somewhere within, say 40 kilometers.

R7 My mother froze bananas. They tasted like ice cream.

[quote]Numerous studies over years reaches same conclusion; placing bread in fridge makes it go stale faster.

That's 100% impossible. Putting the bread in the fridge makes it last longer and prevents it from molding and going dry.

In fact, unless the bread is eaten within 1-2 days, you're [italic]supposed[/italic] to store it in the fridge.

"[bold]So what’s the trick to keep bread from molding? That big thing in your kitchen that holds your milk, butter and eggs. Yep -- your fridge.[/bold]"

[quote] That big thing in your kitchen that holds your milk, butter and eggs.

My husbear?!

The Maytag guy is married to a Datalounger?

The things you learn around this place.

Can we not perhaps leave this all behind in 2020? I don’t want to see this as a new pasta strainer/drainer gate.

[quote] My mother froze bananas. They tasted like ice cream.

You can freeze bananas easily, it's the thawing out afterwards that's the problem. Left frozen, they make great popsicle treats. But if you try to thaw them to eat like a regular banana, they turn to mush and are only good for cooking or blending. You can try to eat them half thawed, but they will taste overly sweet.

I’ve had bread on my counter for over week and I don’t see mold. Is it still OK to eat?

I had a lesbian aunt who refrigerated bread, and then she DIED.

I keep my bread in the freezer, OP. Just take out a couple of slices and pop them in the toaster whenever I watch a sandwich.

And if you don't want toasted bread, it thaws in a matter of minutes.

Was the breadbox more about keeping it away from the mice than keeping it fresh? And why the hell was it always used in size comparisons?