"breadbox" news and stories

If you like bread, chances are that you'd like to stay away from those national brands with lots of preservatives. I know I prefer the artisanal loaves that are free from shelf-extending additives. My problem is that I don't go through bread fast enough and it invariably gets moldy if I get good quality bread. I generally turn to freezing it, and throwing frozen slices into the toaster when I want to eat them.

Wasted Food has posted this article about storing and keeping bread fresher, longer. It's a question and answer session with Paul LaDuca of Zingerman's, a Michigan bakery that does a lot of mail order. He recommends a bread box, and keeping your loaves in a paper bag. According to LaDuca, a plastic bag just draws the moisture from the crumb into the crust, making it soggy.

I was aware of most of these tips, but I have to admit I hadn't thought of using my oven as a bread box. What are your favorite bread storage tips?

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It started with a relatively simple question: how do you improve a breadbox? The answer is that you add a UV lighting system that suppresses the growth of mold, extending the shelf-life of a loaf of bread. This is a particularly neat feature if you by preservative-free loaves of sandwich bread that seem to go bad in only two days.

Installing the light into a reflective, brushed-steel breadbox was a relatively simple matter once you have all the necessary equipment (and if you like building things). But the moment of truth came when the modified breadbox was tested against an unmodified box. The breads in the non-UV box molded in 2 weeks; the UV breads did not mold (though they did eventually dry up after several weeks, by which point you should have eaten the bread). Success!

Total cost of the project: $65. Never having to throw away another half-uneaten loaf that turned moldy: priceless.

[via SciFi Tech]

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I have just discovered this amazing looking bread box cum slicer thingy.

Made by Poilâne - more famous for their bread products - made from wood, industrial quality glass, unbleached linen (that's the top) and stainless steel. The only probelm I can see is that it is designed specifically for a half loaf of their soda bread. It doesnt look like it can take any of differing sizes. It does come with a bread knife and the glass has a gap to guide the bread knife blade and ensure even slicing, while keeping all the crumbs inside the box. The embroidered cover is easy to remove for machine washing.

The only other problem is that it costs Euro250 (about £100) for shipping to the UK or Euro280 (about $340) for the USA.

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Alice posts lots of great, beautifully photographed recipes at My Adventures in the Breadbox, so it can be hard to choose one at a time to try out. When a recipe is not just for salmon, but for the Best Salmon Ever, it is hard to overlook it. The salmon is rubbed all over in the spice combination classically associated with pastrami, so the salmon has an extra beefy taste to it. Alice broiled it, which means that you don't even have to heat up your grill to get a barbeque feel for this dish. She also included the nutritional information, so the salmon is a great choice if you are looking for a healthy dinner option, not to mention being a great choice if you just like salmon in general.

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