Storage

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
Fresh bread is essential for top-quality sandwiches. Stale or dry bread is undesirable. The following measures can be taken to ensure freshness:
  1. Daily delivery, or delivery as frequent as possible, depending on your location. Bread stales rapidly, and day-old bread has lost much of its freshness.
  2. Keep bread tightly wrapped in moistureproof wrapping until it is used. This prevents drying and guards against absorption of odors.

    Breads made of various flours: top row: multigrain, white pan loaf, marble rye, whole wheat, and olive loaf. Bottom row: raisin swirl, pumpernickel, and Jewish rye.

    Breads in various shapes: Top row: Pullman loaf, baguette, home-style, bâtard, sub roll, and hearth. Middle row: Cuban, kaiser, hot dog, New England hot dog, hamburger roll, ciabatta, and steak roll. Bottom row: naan, flour tortillas, whole wheat wrap, and pita.

  3. French bread and other hard-crusted breads should not be wrapped, or the crusts will soften. These breads stale rapidly and should be used the day they are baked.
  4. Store at room temperature, away from ovens or hot equipment. Do not refrigerate, because refrigerated bread becomes stale faster.
  5. If bread must be kept more than one day, it may be frozen. Thaw frozen bread without unwrapping.
  6. Day-old bread may be used for toasting without loss of quality.