Whether you’ve taken the time and effort to bake your own bread from scratch or you’ve spent your hard-earned money on a loaf at the store, there’s nothing worse than pulling out a few slices and seeing spots of mold. It happens far too often and far too quickly, and while you can take steps to extend the life of your bread, like storing it properly, you can also look out for some telltale warning signs. Think of these as alerts telling you to use up the bread, freeze it, or quickly whip up a batch of French toast before the carbs have peaked.
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Nathan Myhrvold, founder of Modernist Cuisine and lead author of the Modernist Cuisine cookbook series, is an expert on all of these things. He has literally written the book (actually several) on bread—including his recent cookbook, Modernist Bread at Home. Myhrvold explains that even well-stored bread will naturally go bad within a few days. But before it’s too late and you have to throw it away, you can watch closely for signs like moisture redistribution, he says—a fancy way of saying that bread gets either dry or mushy in spots toward the end. Aging breads also go stale, which is different from mere drying out and is a harbinger of further aging.
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Signs to look out for according to professionals
Nathan Myhrvold knows what a good loaf of bread is, and he’s also an expert at spotting a loaf that’s losing its luster. He points to moisture redistribution as a distinguishing sign, and goes on to explain that it means the once-crisp crust is becoming tough as moisture moves around the bread, or that the whole loaf is drying out. Dry bread can still taste good—and sometimes it’s even preferable (think croutons or bread pudding), but it’s a clear sign that rot has started and mold is just around the corner.
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Stale bread, another sign of decay, is when it is dry and lacks moisture, has lost its springy, mushy feel and takes on a brittle, crumbly texture. Not to mention it loses its fresh taste. This is a whole different process that involves chemically altering the starch at the molecular level.
Keep an eye out for these precursors of a rotten loaf of bread, as they are good indicators that it’s time to use up the slices of bread while you can. The final stage involves mold, and once you spot mold, it’s over and there’s no turning back. While we all want to reduce food waste, once bread has spoiled, it’s just spoiled. Eating mold can be very harmful, and the USDA recommends throwing out the whole loaf if you see mold on even one piece.
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Proper storage and intelligent use are the key
Storing bread properly is absolutely essential—careless attempts at storage will cause changes in moisture content, thus accelerating the aging process. This doesn’t mean just leaving the bread on the counter in its original bag with plastic wrapped loosely or folded over and hoping for the best. Nathan Myhrvold says plastic isn’t the best for storing it at all, as loaves wrapped in plastic lose some of their water, creating a more humid environment inside the bag that encourages mold growth. Myhrvold suggests throwing away the plastic bag it came in and storing the fresh bread covered. He suggests using breathable material instead—which, somewhat counterintuitively, actually slows down the redistribution of moisture. The freezer is a good choice if you’ve bought too much bread at the store or have more than you can use up in the near future (on the other hand, the fridge should be the last option for bread storage, so go straight to the freezer!)
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Got a loaf of bread that you know is running out of time? Don’t throw out the stale or dried out bread until it has mold spots, advises Myhrvold. Give it a second life by turning it into the perfect DIY croutons, your own breadcrumbs, or sweet treats like French toast or bread pudding, both of which taste best and most delicious when made from slices of bread that are no longer quite fresh.
