Use This Type Of Bread Box To Keep Your Loaves Fresher Longer

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While breadmaking is a little whimsical and certainly fun, you also need that bread for weekday sandwiches and school lunches. Yet anyone in their homemade bread era knows one of the biggest challenges is keeping that beautiful loaf fresh. There's nothing more disappointing than avoiding all the breadmaking mistakes and creating a beautiful loaf, only for it to go stale or moldy. Bread boxes were invented to prevent this sad situation from happening in the first place. For some direction on choosing the perfect box to keep bread fresher longer, we turned to an expert: Maurizio Leo, creator and author of The Perfect Loaf.

"Bread boxes do work, they're an incredibly easy way to store sliced bread and keep it fresh for much longer than leaving it out on the counter," Leo said. "They work by regulating the moisture allowed to reach the bread, keeping just enough in the box to prevent staling." Not only does Leo endorse using a bread box to preserve your bread (they also work for store-bought bread), he takes it a step further: Bread boxes can be made from a lot of different materials and in a lot of styles, so Leo narrowed the options down to a box made from ceramic or metal.

Moisture levels, temperature, and airflow are three key elements that dictate how long a loaf of bread lasts (especially homemade bread, which usually doesn't have the preservatives found in store-bought breads). Left out on the counter, a bread loaf can dry out because there's too much airflow. Tucked away in a bag, that same loaf of bread could mold because of trapped moisture. A bread box solves these issues by providing a contained environment with a little airflow, but not enough to ruin your loaf. Choosing the right bread box can be tricky, though, especially with material options such as wood, plastic, metal, and ceramic. There are also lid designs to consider, such as roll-tops, lids that fit on the top, and hinged tops.

Maurizio Leo suggests going for metal or ceramic boxes with hinged lids: "I prefer these materials because they last longer and stand up to heavy use. I like a bread box with a lid that hinges down, making it easy to open and leave open for taking bread in and out," Leo said. "It's also helpful if the box is easy to wipe clean inside; crumbs will accumulate!" From double-decker metal bread boxes, such as the Homekoko double-layer bread box, to ceramic bread boxes that give off retro vibes, such as the Nomotruc bread box with cutting board lid, it's pretty easy to find a bread box made of the right materials and that fits any aesthetic.