1. 用塑料或鋁箔包裝面包
These types of wrappings will trap in the bread's natural moisture to keep it from drying out and getting hard. If your bread came in a paper wrapping, toss it out and wrap it in plastic or aluminum for storage.
· If you have sliced, processed bread, you can seal it up in its original plastic packaging. Manufacturers of this style of bread recommend leaving it in this packaging to retain the moisture.
· Some swear by leaving unsliced artisanal bread in the paper wrapper, or even leaving it unwrapped on the counter with cut side face-down. This does retain the crispiness of the bread's outer crust, but left exposed to the air, the bread will stale within a few hours.
2. Keep bread at room temperature for no more than two days.
面包在室溫下存放不超過兩天。
Room temperature should be around 20ºC / 68ºF. Keep it away from direct sunlight in a cool and dry place, such as in your pantry or in a bread box.
If you have high humidity in your house, your bread may mold quickly at room temperature. If that's the case, you might want to skip straight to freezing it after you've eaten as much as you want while it's fresh.
3. Freeze extra bread.
冷凍多余的面包
If you have more bread than you can consume before it goes stale within a few days, the best way to store it is by freezing. Freezing bread drops the temperature enough to stop the starch in the bread from recrystallizing and getting stale.
· Be sure to store it in plastic freezer bags or heavy-duty foil, as lightweight household foil isn’t suitable for freezing.
· Label and date it to prevent it from becoming a mystery cube.
· Consider slicing your bread before freezing. That way you won't have to slice it while it's frozen, and it’s often difficult to slice post thawing.
4. Don't put bread in the refrigerator.
不要把面包放到冰箱里。
Scientific studies have shown that this draws out the moisture and the bread becomes stale three times faster than it would at room temperature. This happens from a process known as "retrogradation", which simply means that the starch molecules crystallize and the bread gets tough.
5. Thaw frozen bread.
解凍冷凍的面包
If you have frozen your bread, allow it to thaw at room temperature. Remove the freezer wrapping and let it stand. If you'd like, crisp in the oven or toaster for a few minutes (no more than 5 minutes) to restore crustiness. Be aware that bread is only good for reheating once to return crustiness, after which you are simply reheating stale bread.
相關(guān)閱讀: