Is There a Better Way to Store Bread? I Tried a TikTok Hack to Find Out
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I love bread . It’s one of my everyday foods, so I’ve always got a loaf of soft, pre-sliced bread on hand that I store in its original bag on my countertop. The system has been working for me — I’ve never dealt with stale or moldy bread. That said, I’m always open to having my mind blown, so when I heard that a new hack for storing bread was making the rounds on TikTok, I was game to try it.
The hack is simple, according to this video : Store your pre-sliced bread in a pop-top airtight container with the plastic bag wrapped over the sides of the container. When you’re ready for toast, remove the top and tug on the plastic wrapper; the bread will “magically” rise out of the container, giving you a couple of slices. The video’s creator, @ pairswellwithwhine , states that she especially likes the trick because “it’ll keep you from sticking your hands inside the bag.”
The video states that the container used was from T.J. Maxx, but I couldn’t find it anywhere on their website. Instead, I ordered a 3.7-quart container from OXO on Amazon. OXO’s POP containers are popular and well-known, so I knew they’d be a good choice for my experiment. The size also seemed right for a small loaf of raisin bread I’d recently bought. Unfortunately, it definitely was not. The 3.7-quart container was much too narrow for bread — even a slim one like the loaf I had. (But it’s great for spaghetti!)
Undeterred, I paid a visit to my local Target and grabbed a few loaves of bread from the grocery aisle, all in varying shapes and sizes. With my arms loaded with bread, I sat down in front of all of the pop-top containers in the food storage aisle and got to work fitting loaves inside of containers. After assuring a curious employee I didn’t need help (“Ma’am … are you … okay?”), I found a combination that seemed like a perfect fit: A loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread Good Seed was snug in the OXO 4.3-quart container.
Alas, the carby drama continued when I got home. Although the loaf was nice and cozy in its new container, the plastic bag was too narrow to wrap around the edges, even after ripping them a bit. In other words: The miraculous levitating bread trick was not going to work. Even so, I decided to store my loaf in the container for a few days to see if the airtight pop-top would be a better place than simply on my counter.
It was not. It was a worse place than simply on my counter. The airtight seal was so good on the POP container that moisture accumulated quickly. This meant that after three days, my loaf was colored in bursts of blue mold. I’d never had a loaf go moldy so quickly — and this one was still a week from the expiration date! As the bread baker experts at King Arthur Flour note, a little air circulation is good for keeping the loaf fresh.
Beyond the mold issues, this hack also relies heavily on getting the magic loaf-container ratio correct. It definitely won’t work with bakery or artisan loaves. If you really want to store your bread in a container, choose one that isn’t so tightly sealed. There are plenty of bread boxes that look a whole lot prettier — and are more functional. As I’ve found, a bread box is a lot more breathable, allowing any moisture to escape.
But wait! There’s more! @pairswellwithwhine had another bread storage trick for me to try. In this video , she tosses the plastic ties and twisties that come with bread bags. Instead, she twists the bag closed and pulls the sides down over the loaf — essentially creating an extra sheath for the bag. Would that work? It was definitely more aligned with my minimalist approach to bread storage.
Read more : How Do You Store Your Bread?
I tried this trick with two different loaves of bread, and it works … sort of. It only works if you are done with half of the loaf. I also wasn’t convinced the twisted neck of the bag would stay put, and I was right! My half-loaf unraveled twice throughout the day.
Store your bread in the bag it came in or a bread box
All things considered, I was majorly disappointed by both of these tricks. They were definitely not the best thing since sliced bread. I guess it just goes to show that sometimes the old-fashioned way — storing your bread in the bag (and using the tag) it comes with or investing in a bread box — is best.
How do you store your bread? Tell us in the comments below.
Rochelle Bilow
Contributor
Rochelle Bilow is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, the former social media manager at Bon Appétit Magazine and Cooking Light Magazine. She has also worked as a cook on a small farm in Central New York, and a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. Connect with her @rochellebilow.
Source : food
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