Verdict: A freezer bag is a decent short-term, room-temperature bread storage solution. Storing your bread on the countertop in a plastic bag (or well-sealed plastic wrap) will help keep it from going stale, but be warned: the crust will suffer and grow mold due to trapped moisture. Toasting the bread (if it’s too soft but not yet moldy, of course) will bring some of the crust's crunchy texture back.
Ziploc Gallon Food Storage Freezer Bags, 80-Count
3. A fancy bread bag
Our friends at Food52 love the Uashmama Bread Bag, a coated paper bag that comes with a terracotta bread warmer. But after testing the fancy bread bag with the same sourdough loaf and half of a baguette, the bag seems better suited for very short-term bread storage.
The bread in the Uashmama bread bag never molded—not in the two-week testing period, and not the third week we left it there just to see what would happen. But by day six of the first week, the bread stored inside was hard as a rock, which is pretty much what we'd expect from a paper bag, even a coated one. Stale bread is preferable to moldy bread though, since it is possible to revive a stale loaf of bread.
Verdict: A fancy coated-paper bread bag can slow the bread-staling process a little but it’s not a great option for storing bread beyond a day or two.
Uashmama Bread Bag & Terracotta Bread Warmer
5. A boule bread bag
In addition to the fancy coated paper bag, we put a sourdough loaf and a full baguette into boule bread bags. We loved that one of the bags was the exact size and shape of the baguette, but we might as well have left the bread out on the counter. It never got moldy but it sure did get really hard, really fast.
Verdict: Bread stales very quickly in a boule bread bag, even in warm, humid weather.
6. The counter
A crusty loaf of bread on a weathered wood cutting board may look great on Instagram, —especially if there’s a linen tea towel artfully draped nearby—but it’s a terrible way to store fresh bread, or any bread. Unlike a fully-frosted cake, bread needs to be covered, even at room temperature. So if you really don’t want to put your bread in the freezer, try the bread box or plastic bag recommended above.
Verdict: Leaving your bread on the counter makes for a nice Instagram photo of super-stale bread.
7. The fridge
The refrigerator, that miraculous 20th-century food preserver that keeps our celery crisp and our milk chilled, is actually the last place your bread belongs. According to Harold McGee, author of On Food & Cooking, refrigerating fresh bread can cause it to stale up to six times faster than bread left out on the counter. That said, the fridge is a decent place to store your store-bought bread because it will prevent mold and dryness.
Verdict: Whatever you do, don’t put your fresh bread in the fridge!
Not all breads stale the same
Because there are so many different types and styles of fresh bread, it may take a little trial and error to find the best room-temperature bread storage solution for your favorite fresh bread. Breads with added fat, like challah and brioche, will take longer to go stale, whereas a baguette—because of its narrow shape and lack of fat—is an extreme case and will go stale very rapidly. It should really be eaten the day it's baked.
