But frozen bread is not quite same. It has a strange crispiness to it.

If you aren't in a hurry, it also thaws pretty well on the counter. About 10 minutes seems to do the trick.

I wish someone had told me all this a long time ago. For the first 35+ years of my adult life buying bread either meant wasting a lot, or eating a lot more sandwiches and toast than I would have liked.

The other frozen thing I wish I'd known about a lot earlier is microwave "steam in bag" frozen vegetables, such as [1]. They are only $0.78 at my local store, which is way cheaper than the canned vegetables I used to buy, taste way better, and are trivial to prepare (stick bag in microwave for 5 minutes, let stand for 1 minute).

[1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Steamable-Mixed-Veget...

Here's one BBC article that mentions it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4DfZMpv7BYJ3kGXdHx...

"Freezing turns starch into resistant starch... this means that your body gets far fewer calories from the bread. In effect, the resistant starch feeds your gut bacteria, rather than feeding you."

Where I live, it's more like 20% relative humidity, and bread with air exchange dries out.

About your situation: I've to admit that I don't know about keeping bread well in such bad conditions. I'd try a slightly more sealed container, or if that doesn't work, slice and freeze it fresh. Other than that, find uses for dry bread (works perfectly fine in soup, or if white bread, make breadcrumbs etc. etc.).

20% rel. humidity is so low that it is very uncomfortable for humans, even unhealthy for some people. Are you really sure that's your in-house humidity? Outside/inside are often very different, due washed clothes drying, cooking, plants, respiration, and also humidity from the cellars in some buildings.

If yes, and if possible, I'd recommend an air humidifier to get that up to 40% or so. Depending on volume, a $60 unit should be able to do this, even if it will take three weeks until the humidity slowly approaches sensible levels.

> INGREDIENTS: Organic whole wheat (organic whole wheat flour, organic cracked wheat), water, organic dried cane syrup (sugar), organic expeller pressed canola oil, organic wheat gluten, organic molasses, organic cultured whole wheat, sea salt, yeast, organic vinegar.

Is it the vinegar?

It's mainly used to cut sashimi slices from a fillet without thawing the fish first. It goes in the fridge with bite-sized nigiri-sushi rice wads, and is defrosted by lunch time the next day.

It occasionally gets used to make really thin slices out of slightly stale bread.

As a french person, the idea that you would put bread in the fridge just horrifies me. But then most of the stuff labelled as bread in the US really isn't bread.

A bread machine will make both your bread a million times better, both taste and ingredients-that-are-inside wise.

And the imitation "sandwich" bread that tastes like cardboard and sawdust easily lasts for 3+ weeks regardless of where and how it is stored. Which makes me marvel at what it's made of that it doesn't go bad in a month.

Bread machines are tricky and very messy. They don't produce enough heat to fully cook bread through like it would in a proper commercial oven. At least that was my experience with all the consumer-grade bread machines. YMMV

But more to the point, good quality bread has been more ingrained in the culture of several (but not all) European countries than in the US, and while the wheels are turning, it seems to take some time.

But also bear in mind that in some places, eg rural France, it might well be a ten minute drive to the baker in the next village. People will still do it daily, or several times a week.

Also the case in the middle east and Asia, though it tends to be flat breads of various kinds. And in some places like India it's more common to just make it yourself.

Another is that you consume significantly less than even a small loaf of bread. I haven't been to a bakery that will sell you individual slices of bread, or even parts of a loaf. Maybe this is different in other countries (I live in the US).

It's also typically much more expensive to buy serving-sized anything.