How do I store bread so it does not go stale?

Staling is not drying out; it is starch recrystallising, and that happens fastest just above freezing. Which is precisely why the fridge, the intuitive place to put things, is the worst possible choice for bread.

Step by step

1. Keep it at room temperature for the first couple of days.A bread bin, a paper bag, or cut-side down on a board. Good crusty bread is at its best on day one and acceptable on day two.
2. Never put bread in the fridge.Starch recrystallises fastest at fridge temperature. Bread goes stale roughly three times faster there than on the counter.
3. Match the wrapping to the bread.Crusty bread in paper — plastic softens the crust. Soft sandwich bread in plastic — paper dries it out.
4. Freeze anything you will not eat in two days.Freezing halts staling completely. Slice it first so you can take out what you need.
5. Toast frozen slices straight from the freezer.No defrosting needed. It works so well that it is worth freezing bread by default.
6. Revive a stale loaf with water and heat.Run the crust briefly under the tap, then 10 minutes in a hot oven. It comes back remarkably well for a few hours.
7. Use genuinely stale bread rather than binning it.Breadcrumbs, croutons, panzanella, French toast, bread sauce, bread and butter pudding. Several of these are better with stale bread.

Tips

• Slice a loaf as you go rather than all at once. The cut face is where moisture escapes.
• Shop-bought sliced bread contains additives that slow staling, which is why it behaves differently from a bakery loaf.
• Mould is different from staleness. Discard mouldy bread entirely rather than cutting the affected part off — the threads spread further than the visible growth.

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