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This doctor has the enthusiasm level I would expect from a bread scientist.

Imagine being a bread scientist and coming home from a long day of bread science work.

I love how Adam brings in experts from the field and really presents research when he explains things.

The transition from bread to mattresses was amazing

Fun fact - where I live (Poland) they call these breads "toast bread". They're only really used for that, otherwise you buy a normal bread. And it's much better than regular bread for doing toasts, or for example a grilled cheese. But very few people eat it "raw" for anything else.

I love this bread professional lady, like a perfect combo of being an expert, passionate while also seeming like she's so over it

In Poland we have small bakeries at every corner and they make it traditional way. It is also 4 times more expensive than the bread from the shopping mall but it is totally worth the price.

Tip from personal home baking experience: I find recipes that incorporate a small portion of whole wheat or rye flour produce breads that stay softer for much longer than when I use purely white flour. No idea why but it helps me stretch out my loaves just a few days more

This is what I love about this channel. There's so many different topics that I didn't even know I cared about but Adam opens my eyes to it and I'm like "Dang! That's fascinating!" Thank you Adam!

The amazing thing is that when "supermarket/store/factory bread" was first introduced it was actually an improvement on much of the bread that was being sold because it wasn't compromised with fillers such as sawdust and who knows what else. The state of baked goods in urban areas a century and more ago was pretty nasty much of the time. The factory bread was delivered fresh to the store several times a week (those colored bag clips tell you which day), it was pre-sliced, you didn't have to wonder what was in it, and it was very affordable.

My mom and Grandma (Nana) bake thier own fantastic wheat bread. The use the same recipe, but taste slightly different, so we call them "Nana bread" and "Mom bread". The structures of Mom bread and Nana bread are too loose to hold up to spreads like peanut butter, mayo, or mustard and would have to be pretty thick to hold a sandwich together, so we mostly use it for morning toast. We call storebought sliced bread "sandwich bread" and use it almost exclusively for sandwiches.

"Real" bread (sour dough, rye, whole grain) will NOT mold after 3 days and there is no need for preservatives either. It can easily last for more than 7 days, although the taste will degrade after 3 days. It is key to not cut the loaf in slices. Also you need a container that can exchange moisture while being relatively air tight. A wooden bread box is ideal.

Now we know that the saying "the greatest thing since sliced bread" means a little more than we thought. A lot more was involved than just slicing a loaf and putting it in a bag.

Dr. Elisa Karkle did a great job explaining everything about this subject matter.

I bake all my own bread and its good for at least 5 days... though does change over those days and get a little harder it doesn't go stale. And bread without preservatives definitely doesn't go mouldy within 3 or 4 days

I wonder if she eats bread or just strictly studys it

In Slovakia, and most of Europe from my experience, this soft white bread is only used for toasts and sometimes sandwiches. The "normal" bread with crust is what we use for everything else basically, and our cuisine is full of bread. Some people, generally the older generations, actually hate this what they call "American bread" with a passion, saying it's not even bread, and that it's unhealthy, artificial, etc. Funny how people can get so angry over bread lol.

As a dutch person, my family (and I presume many, many others) put our bread in the freezer. That way, we can eat bread over a week/month old that still tastes like bread. It seems like this is less common internationally than I expected.

I've never had a loaf of home-made sourdough bread grow mold, and I don't add anything besides flour, home-grown sourdough starter, water, and salt. It gets really hard after about a week, sure, but not mouldy.

I bake bread twice a week, just a standard 1lb loaf pan bread. It lasts three to four days, we just got tired of all the junk added to store bought bread and we are learning to eat homemade bread for things that seem odd at first, like peanut butter sandwiches.

When adam does his advertisement segment, I like to imagine he actually does that live in the middle of the conference call with the experts and they stop explaining the science to sit quietly and listen to adam's ad for three minutes. Never fails to make me laugh internally

9:29 I like how the bread scientist lady is clearly annoyed by the fact that people think sliced bread is full of toxic chemicals. For a split second, you could literally see the raging core of her soul through her eyes when she mentioned it lol.

In our style of bread we depend almost exclusively on ethanol content for it to rise in the oven, so we let it ferment more. When the bread in the oven ethanol boils making the bread to rise, it can be little bit more sour / sourer but less chewy and last longer typically.

I would love to see some steamed bread content in the future. Over the each winter I have been working on making good Boston Brown Bread. It is cool to see what the purpose of malted flour is (in this video). I added it primarily to add a hint of sweetness.

My mom used to bake bread a lot when I was younger and I have to tell you: i LOVED when it went stale. Perfect excuse to butter the hell out of it and shove it in the microwave for a few seconds, just long enough for the butter to melt through the whole slice. Warm, melty buttered bread. ❤

Some of this I don’t always think applies to traditional bread loafs. I sometimes make 4 loafs of bread at once freezing most of it. The bread I make often lasts a full week before becoming too hard to really eat by itself. So I would give traditional bread a bit more of a range for how fast it goes bad than given in the video.

I bought a pound of ascorbic acid from Amazon and I put about a gram of vitamin c into my bread while mixing up one large loaf or two medium sized ones. I have found that it does work very well to strengthen the dough. I also tend to add a tablespoon of sugar and anywhere from a few tablespoons to a quarter cup of oil to my bread as well. I used to be stingy with the salt, but I found that salt also strengthens gluten. Salt also slows down the fermentation process, so if you do an overnight cold ferment, you end up with a really delicious stinky dough in the morning.

I appreciate your food education so much; Thank you for what you do.

11:55 I actually used to work for a company that made these types of bread cooling towers - they're called conveyor spirals in the industry. They're quite a feat of engineering, honestly - the conveyor belt actually wraps around a massive central drum/cage which rotates. They are used not just to cool bread after baking but also to proof the dough in heated proving rooms and to freeze various products in blast freezers.

1:38 : When your bread becomes as hard as a rock, you can moisten it a bit (the amount of water depends on the dryness of the bread, dryer = more water) and put it in the oven at 180C°. It will be crispier than before, and the inside will be soft again.

Fascinating AF, bro. I’ve been making bread off and on for a few years but was nervous about deviating from specific recipes because I wasn’t versed in the science of how all the reactions work together. I feel a lot more comfortable with experimentation now with some fundamental understanding of what’s happening to the flour/bread with each ingredient. Big thumbs up!👍

Thanks Dr for this great video!!! I am sharing with friends and family

Freezing bread works really well and makes “real” bread available on demand. Of course cutting before freezing is highly advised.

"If you've ever collapsed and degased, you how troubling experience that can be" Words to live by

In germany we call those bagged soft loafs "toast bread" bc we rarely eat it without putting it in a toaster

This lecture on bread was the best you have given so far on any topic. It was a wealth of infomation. I have heard of people adding vinegar to preserve bread (2 Tbs. for 2 lb. loaf). My question is when to add the vineager. I would be afraid the acidic vinegar would kill the yeast. Please advise.

It's not the "traditional" bread's fault that you left it out on the counter. Day-old bread does not need to become bread crumbs! Bread is kept at room temp in a dry spot, covered e.g. in a bread box and a cloth, but not in an airtight container. Put the cut side down so it doesn't dry out. Most kinds of bread can last up to a week, white breads up to 5 days. They might get harder/chewier but as long as there's no mold, they're safe to eat. If you have a chunk you know you can't use up in time, you can freeze it and later thaw it in the oven.

I really enjoy these food science videos that explain what some of the "chemical"-sounding terms on the ingredient labels are and what they do. I was friends with a Chemical Engineer in college who was studying food science, and he was always going on about how people were way too afraid of these ingredients just because they sound science-y. According to him, all "chemicals" used in food are extremely well understood and safe, and that what people should really pay attention to is the sugar/fat/salt content.

Very informative. I bake my bread weekly and place more than a few days worth in the freezer and the rest in the refrigerator. No mold issues. I also make my bread with real whole wheat in that I grind it fresh. That is much tastier than using any grocery store flour. Another video could cover why modern commercial flour is crap.

I remember my Spanish professor (from Italy) saying how he always thought United States’ bread was too much like cake. He only ate bread baked at home. It wasn’t until after baking my own bread I noticed how much of a difference there is

My local bakery makes awesome Rye bread which has only water, rye flour, yeast, and malt. Due to its natural acidity, it doesn't allow mold to grow easily. When I keep it bagged in some foil, it can last over a week, and still tastes pretty good. Even if it's on its last leg, I can still make a great toast out of it. So much better than most mass produces breads.

It used to be that along with butcher shops every town had a local bakery. Not mentioned is the flour milling process. Milled wheat looses nutrition over time and more so if the wheat seed's germ is removed. Big bakeries require big flour mills. To make up for the lose of nutrition a process of enrichment is used.

I love anyone who lets the cat on their lap doing a zoom.

Adam it’d be cool if you do a video on “seed oils” I feel like it’s a hot topic and a lot of differing opinions. Be curious to hear about the history/science about them.

I am from switzerland and my dad always does his own bread at home, if your bread is rockhard after one day, you do something wrong! Our bread without additives, just spelt, water , salt and fresh yeast is edible for almost a week, yes the outermost inch or so gets hard and needs to be cut away, but at least at the beginning, the 2. or 3. slice is still good.

Very informative!! Thank you!

Just a short note on the 'day old bread' - I make sourdough bread (water, flour, salt, using a no-knead method), and I can get a full week out of it (assuming it doesn't get eaten on the first day). Inside stays soft, crust stays... crusty. All I do is place the loaf cut-side down on the cutting board. It isn't quite 'first-day' good, but pretty darn close. I live in the Mountain-west, close to a mile above sea level, with average humidity around 50% (I recognize those could be factors. Humidity does very throughout the year, from 35% in summer months to 70% in winter.).

It amazes me that so many people still haven't worked out that you can freeze and defrost sliced bread and it will taste literally the same. EDIT: And by sliced I just mean bread that has been cut into slices. You can bake a fresh loaf of sourdough, wait for it to cool, put it straight in the freezer and just take slices out as you need them. Toast is actually better this way - if this is news to you, you're welcome 😊

Using a "tangzhong" instead of conditioners is pretty miraculous for longer shelf life and an industrialized-like texture, highly recommend home bakers giving that a try.

Interesting and informative. But it doesn't explain why the breads on supermarket shelves today are noticeably even *worse* than the same ones from many years ago--in texture, flavor and the ability to make decent toast. Even considering all the mergers and company buy-outs through the years (where the major bread manufacturers now total only 2 or 3), I'd really like to know what processes and/or ingredients have been changed along with them.

Adam is the best professior! He dispenses information so well! If only we had all teachers like him.

if you dont cut through the bread it stays fresh longer, its just when you expose the inside to air. Also you can just wrap it in plastic and it stays soft, even gets softer. If you keep the sandwich bread out in the open it gets hard too btw.

I'm from Germany. I grew up calling "sandwich bread" "toast". Basically, all my life, I though of it as "raw toast", and I have never eaten "sandwich bread" untoadted. We take bread very seriously in Germany. (Also, bread from my local artisanal bakery does not mould within three days and does not go stale as fast either.)

Wow, thanks for explaining, good to know!

Great information. Love your kitchen. ❤

I keep my soudough leftovers in a closed Pyrex dish. It's enough to keep the moisture in so the bread doesn't go stale, but the crust does lose crispness and goes chewy. You can also rebake your leftovers for 10 or 15 minutes to revive old bread. The moisture on the inside turns back into steam and equalizes throughout the old loaf. Leftover bread also makes great toast.

It’s hard to hate on it when it does exactly what it’s made for quite well. Regardless of its other qualities, gotta give that much credit.

There’s something so magical about a warm slice of sourdough with melted butter.

I used to store my bread in the cupboard or freezer because i learned that you should never keep it in the fridge...but in the cupboard it would often go mouldy before i ate it all. If you want your home made bread to keep longer, store it in the fridge and heat it up right before you eat it. It should last for a couple of weeks in the fridge and heating it to around 140F reverses the retrogradation and it's near as good as fresh bread right out of the oven. If you're taking sandwiches somewhere that you can't heat the bread, slice your bread before you freeze it and then you can take small amounts out at a time to thaw.

First time I went to the US I was amazed how sweet and unusually textured the bread was. Thanks for explaining why.

It was a huge revelation to me when I'd discovered that the presence of additional water actually enhances browning, and I still have no idea why that works. I'd love to see an episode about that in the future.

So happy to see these do-able garage projects 🔥

I make my own! Takes no time and minimal ingredients 😋 I’m sick of eating whatever this mess is…(it’s not feasible to keep bread fresh ) keep it in the freezer, thaw it out a few slices around a time, and it is perfect!

Around 8:50, he mentions that acidity reduces browning. For anyone curious, the reason is that the Maillard reaction (browning) happens more in alkaline environments. (See edit!) That is the reason some crispy chicken wing recipes suggest coating with baking soda, an alkaline substance. Edit: What @Henric von Winklebottom wrote is probably the correct explanation for the chicken wing trick. What I wrote was an assumption but the explanation they wrote was specifically given in another video that I watched after my original comment. A better example for the pH effect would be the use of lye for pretzels as was noted by several people in the replies. I didn't rewrite the original comment to not cause confusion on the context of replies.

I love how many times he mentions other topics from his channel, from the malted barley syrup, to the retrogadation and the alcohol in breads. It feels like I'm having a crash course in the science of bread

most fair bread argument I have ever heard in my entire life. After hearing why my whole life why baked bread is better. Or any Euro friend mocking my country's bread.

Fun fact about "real bread". When making european style bread (I mean the eastern variant - half rye, half wheat from sour dough) you implement lots of these things like acidity, bacteria fermentation, ect. Even when making bread at home, good sign that you did a good job is that the bread lasts for 5-6 days, when stored properly. But the preparation is long, at least 12 hours of rising and mixing so it can be more expensive than sandwich bread :)

As someone who has collapsed an de-gassed, the second hand embarrassment was the most troubling experience to be honest.

I appreciate that A.R. explains pretty much without attacking-or-defending.

If you don't store your selfmade bread properly you don't have to wonder why it crystallizes. You can reverse the crystallization process a little bit by putting the bread under water for a short time and warming it up again, but this only works once. Normally a bread lasts 5 days when it is cut. For this to work, the bread should be placed with the cut side on a board so that the crumb shields the bread. The bread will only last longer if you add food that gives the bread more moisture, such as potatoes. This is especially important when you make bread from other grains such as spelt or rye or emmer grain. Greetings from Germany.

My grandmother used to bake bread every week. You can make homemade bread last a week if you want to, you just have to wrap it in a plastic bag and put it in a dry place that isn’t out in the open. We used to store it in the oven that wasn’t turned on. Worked wonders for us

This explains the miserably short dates on most breads at my Trader Joe's--a lack of preservatives. I feel lucky if I can get it dated 5 days away from when I'm shopping. Most of the time, I just bring it home and use a few slices for whatever current purpose I have and the rest goes straight to the freezer. Especially if toasted when coming out, it still serves very well.

Good videos, always trying to educate the public. I like that.

love how a lot of the comment section is just *roasting* Adam on proper bread care. This is something I learned watching/helping my parents cook that I apply to pretty much every food I make, bread included! When you're done making bread, put it away somewhere. if I make a lot I tend to freeze most of it and store the rest in a plastic container in the fridge, keeps well and doesn't grow moldy and stale. DONT leave food out and open to the air for a long period of time! Of course your bread got stale in one night you left it on the counter with no cover! We have these marvels called BAGS and CONTAINERS and THE FRIDGE meant especially to KEEP YOUR FOOD EDIBLE LONGER!

Regarding homemade bread 'shelf'-life, it's also a factor of dough hydration and how far you bake it. I use 80% hydration on my no-knead and I underbake it slightly. Cut the loaf into quarters (only after it's cooled down) and freeze the other 3/⁴ - that'll maintain moisture. Using a breadbox also works wonders (at least wrap it in cloth). Lastly, you can rehydrate bread by either misting it (ideal) or splashing some water on it. If you're toasting it, you won't even notice! Or you can also microwave it for 5-10sec at low power and that'll get it soft again.

Regarding this kind of bread, here in Germany 🇩🇪 we mostly call this type of bread toast, because its the main kind of bread we do, well, toast. By the way Adam, you remember your bread pizza recipe? In Germany we actually have the same meal concept, just done on "toast". Because the bread isn't pre-baked much, both the cheese and bread can bake and brown together, without danger of the bread burning before the cheese is brown. Very popular variation, toast hawaii. Which is toast (sandwich bread), pineaple, ham and cheese. Although it has somewhat of a bad name within germany, it's actually quite nice, easy to make and cheap food. Anyway, good video as always, Adam! Love your videos.

very interesting and informative, I loved the "because... Science" bit

I worked at a bakery. Flour, water , cal-prop, ascorbic acid and corn syrup were the major ingredients I remember. There may have been a few other incidental ingredients. We made hamburger/hot dog buns mostly, but also bagels. Don’t remember ingredients for bagels, even though I mixed both and worked in all areas of production.

Yooo Adam, to increase the time you can eat your selfmade bread,simply put it into a not perfectly sealed container with 1-2 sheets of paper towels (depends on the mass of the bread). You don't need to add anything, just be aware of storing it correctly (fridge after 2 days). The container will max the time it takes for the starch to harden, and the towels will suck up moisture which might lead to mold. I am storing wholegrains bread for 1-2 weeks, white breads such as polish potato bread for about 1 week.... Let the bread slice temperature before eating or throw it for a short time into the Toaster, delicious yw.

I once read that biscuits were originally sort of rusks made by putting yesterdays bread in the oven to sort of crisp it. The etymology of biscuit is Latin via old French for twice cooked.

Grocery store bread is frozen bread-shaped dough that they put on a tray, let it thaw overnight, and bake in the morning.

I was raised by a British mother in the American south. I didn’t even know the “bagged bread” isle existed until I started doing my own shopping in high school.

The Pullman Loaf, pain de mie, etc. was created as a bread with a tiny crust. It was created in Europe in the 18th century. It was nicknamed “Pullman” because it was used in American Pullman rail car restaurants since its rectangular shape was space-efficient for storage.

Have you tried "Kurdish flat naan". It can be stored for over a year. Just cover it in a dry area to keep it clean, and all you have to do is spricle a tiny amount of water and wait couple of minutes before it soften and be ready to eat. It is very health, No suger, no salt, no yeast and no fat. It is a transitional winter bread in the cold mountin areas of the Middle East.

I like that they're on other sides of the store, makes my convenient trip all the more inconvenient.

Great analysis of sandwich loaf composition.

If you left the bread out overnight… of course it went stale. Put it in a bag or bread bin to extend its life.

I want to take a moment and appreciate this for what it is. a wonderul example of being factual. I appreciate these kinds of videos and shared this with my mom. Thank you kind sir and keep up the great work.

I've just started messing around with einkorn flour and it seems to stay softer longer. It does taste a bit different, but still good.

Regarding mold, I noticed that when I brought sliced bread home from a grocery store one time, a frozen item was right next to it. The contact led to condensation inside of the bag containing the bread in the area of the contact with the frozen product. I noticed the location and shape of the condensation pattern, but didn't think too much about it. A few days later, I saw mold had formed right where that condensation had been a few days earlier. The shape matched the condensation's shape/pattern. Since I know water can promote the growth and spread of mold, this made sense to me. The bag may have had a certain humidity level, but it's fairly evenly spread. But condensation concentrates it into one or more areas, which can lead to accelerated mold growth when that makes contact with the bread. Ever since this incident, I try to keep cold items away from the bread. Some people bagging items in the store know not to put heavy items on top of bread or crushable/smashable items. But VERY few, if any know to keep cold/frozen items away from bread to minimize premature mold. If they are about to put bread and frozen items together in bag, I try to stop them; I'll carry the bread separately, if necessary. Besides, it is usually a good practice to keep frozen items together with each other, and refrigerated items together with each other, and room-temperature items together with each other. If you are using several bags, then separate bags for frozen, refrigerated, and room-temperature items makes sense. Then, keep the bag with the bread away from the others. Still, I find times that they scan the bread, push that aside, and then scan a frozen item and push that against the bread before bagging the items. That touch may be brief, but is often long enough to create the condensation that will accelerate mold growth.

I bake my own bread,alternating between a sourdough rye and a pan style white bread using a challah recipe, quarter cup each of honey and olive oil, as he points out this does keep longer than the rye. One thing I do with both is avoiding cutting until the bread is fairly cool, this keeps more moisture in the bread instead of escaping as steam.

Thank you, I'd wondered about the drastic difference in texture between homemade loaves and sandwich type. I still love both, just for different occasions. Btw, ANY bread will take longer to stale or mold if it's kept in a closed plastic bag in the fridge, & you can soften & refresh hard staled bread w/a few seconds in the microwave.

7:18 Kitteh, great video, thank you

So glad I clicked on this. Over years, I had noticed these differences and had similar ideas, without the knowledge of what they really were. It seems so obvious now.

Here is a tip from Scandinavia: There are hardly anyone here that eats "sandwich bread". Scandinavians want "real" bread. So how can we deal with the aging problem if we don't eat a whole bread in one meal? We cut the bread into slices (there are machines for this in our stores), and put the whole thing in the freezer. When you want a slice of bread you take a slice from the frozen bread (leave the rest in the freezer) and thaw it in the toaster. Viola! Fresh real bread :) NB: We don't really have the same sandwhich tradition that you have. We make mostly open faced "sandwiches", and you have probably explained why.

Hey Adam here's a trick we use in France for day or 2 day old bread. We spray it with water using a spray bottle and warm it in the oven. This rehydrates the bread and crusts the crust while at the same time softening it. It must be eaten immediately. If it cools for too long it becomes too hard to eat. Experiment with it and see what works for you:)

I buy regular bread, put it through the slicer at the store, or have them slice it at the bakery. Then I keep it in the freezer, and just get the slices I need out about 30 minutes before eating.

Food science is truly fascinating

I’d love to see a video on why there are two cheese sections as well. Like a “fake” cheese section with the Kraft singles and block cheeses, and a “real” cheese section with cheese with names and ages