Quote: Pingl @ July 9 2013, 10:25 AM BSTGood point, the colour of tomatoes worries me, far to red, never used to be that red, and whats with this leaving the stalks on, bloody pointless. I buy bread from my baker it goes hard within a day, if you buy that slightly slimy processed stuff it lasts forever, full of shit
Actually bread is interesting stuff. It actually lasts until some mould spores manage to land on it and make it mouldy. The trick to stop it going hard is to keep the humidity level up. This is what the old-fashioned bread bins used to do.
There is a modern equivalent which I get from 99p stores, You get a box of bread bags. These are long fat poly bags into which a whole loaf will slide. Variously, some suggestions are seal the end others say just fold it over.
Personally I squeeze out excess air then clamp the end shut and then keep the whole thing in the fridge. the lifetime of the loaf, provided you don't eat it all quicker, will depend on how careful you are at minimising the chance of getting spores in the bag, by exposing only the end while you slice bits off. I've had Tiger loaves last a whole month, though 2-3 weeks is more likely.
It does have one snag, crisp loaves like Tiger Bread do share their internal moisture with the crust, so the crust does go soft, but cutting slices off and lightly toasting them returns the chrispness.
