Luftmensch
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I think it is important to distinguish between stale and dry. I use "stale" as a taste and is not reversable. "Dryness" is a texture and is generally reversable by adding water to the surface or soaking for a few minutes in extreme circumstances. In my experience, almost all bread goes dry before it goes stale. Some bread obviously goes stale (a baguette from france) and will be unpalatable a day after purchase no matter how much soaking and baking you do.
Good point!
I think this is more of a modern cultural thing though? Stale has never meant rancid or "off". It implies food is past its prime but is still edible... At least in my interpretation.
My sourdough gets "dry" pretty quickly - within a few days. It is fine to eat! If you dont mind drier bread or are happy to make toast... no problems. Our bread always gets eaten. I doubt we have taken longer than a week... maybe 12 days at the worst??
Kind of makes me think... we are probably too accustomed to eating 'perfect' food. In the grand scheme of things, this is a recent phenomenon. For most of our history we were routinely eating stale food. To your point Ruisreikäleipä is a great example of bread that is designed to have a long shelf life - although it is "dry" it is not "off".