How To Properly Store Sourdough Bread So It Stays Fresh For Longer

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Remember back in the pandemic when sourdough bread was all the rage? Some pandemic bakers have kept up the good work over the intervening years, and as times get tougher, we may turn to sourdough once again to see us through another crisis. Whether we're baking our own sourdough or buying it at the store, there remains the question of how to store loaves so they stay fresh. For input on this issue, The Takeout turned to baker Korine Adams.

"Breathability is really important when storing sourdough bread," Adams, an instructor at Wilton Sweet Studio, told us. She advises storing bread somewhere cool and dry with good airflow and low moisture. "The goal is to keep the soft interior crumb protected, like its crust naturally does," she explained. Properly stored sourdough may last up to a week, as long as it stays dry. "More moisture leads to mold faster, so don't leave sourdough in a wet bag, ever," Adams advised.

It's also best practice to cut off only as much of the loaf as you need at one time, as a cut loaf needs more protection. "The crumb is now exposed to air which will immediately start to dry out the starch," Adams explained. She advocates cutting the first slice from the middle, even though it exposes two sides of the bread at once, because the ends will still be intact to protect their respective sides. Once the loaf is cut, you'll also need to store the bread standing on end — or ends, as it were — so the cut sides face down.

Sourdough not only tastes different than other breads, but it stores differently, too. "Sourdough naturally lives longer on the counter than most other breads as the acids fermented into the bread give it natural preservatives," Korine Adams told us. She explained that you can keep it in a plastic bag if you like your bread softer, but you'll need to be careful that the bag doesn't develop any condensation inside. If it does, wipe it out immediately. Even so, the bread might start to grow mold after about three days. 

Bread stored in a paper bag will likely stay dryer, since this material provides better air flow than plastic and "protects the bread," according to Adams. The downside here is that the bread may start to dry out after three days, and could still grow mold after four or five days.

If your house has any creepy-crawlies or counter-surfing cats, you'll probably want to choose a third option, that being a bread box made of wood or metal. (The Jiguoor bread box selling for $24.99 on Amazon is helpfully labeled so you won't forget what's in there.) Again, the bread may start to dry out on day three, although Adams noted that you can leave the lid off and cover it with a towel if you want it to dry out even sooner for cooking purposes — stale bread is the best kind of bread for making croutons, for example. "Keep your bread box super clean by wiping it down with vinegar between loaves to ensure a storage cavity free of mold," Adams advised.

If you need your bread to last longer than a few days, you'll probably need to refrigerate or freeze it. Yes, refrigeration is a valid option, even if it's not necessarily the best one. While Korine Adams admitted that refrigerating your bread will make it dry out and grow stale faster, she observed, "If you're toasting your bread, you might not mind or even notice a difference with fridge-stored bread for the first few days." 

Even refrigerated bread can grow mold, however, particularly if the moisture level inside the refrigerator is high. You might also want to wrap the bread in plastic or keep it in a sealed container to protect it against absorbing any refrigerator odors.

Freezing, however, has very few downsides for bread. Most breads can be frozen for around three months, although there may be some quality drop-off after a while, so Adams suggests eating frozen sourdough within two months. You can freeze all or part of a loaf, or, if you think you'll only be needing a small amount at a time, you can wrap individual slices in foil and then seal them in a ziploc bag. While frozen bread does need to be thawed before reheating, a single slice won't take nearly as long to defrost as it might take to return an entire loaf to room temperature.