On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1025

Asthetemperaturedeclines,thestarch
granulesbecomefirmerandsotheloafasa
wholebecomeseasiertoslicewithouttearing.
Thisdesirablefirmingcontinuesoverthe
courseofadayorso,andturnsouttobethe
firststepintheprocesscalledstaling.
TheStalingProcess;
StoringandRefreshingBread

StalingStalingtakesplaceinthedays
followingbaking,andseemstoinvolvethe
lossofmoisture:thebreadinteriorgetsdry,
hard,andcrumbly.Itturnsoutthatbreadwill
staleevenwhenthere’snonetlossof
moisturefromtheloaf.Thiswasshowninthe
landmarkstudyofbreadstalingin1852,when
theFrenchmanJean-BaptisteBoussingault
showedthatbreadcouldbehermetically
sealedtopreventitfromlosingwater,andyet
stillgostale.Hefurthershowedthatstalingis
reversedbyreheatingthebreadto140ºF/60ºC:


thetemperature,wenowknow,atwhich
starchgelates.
Stalingisnowunderstoodtobea
manifestationofstarchretrogradation,the
recrystallization,watermigrationoutofthe
granules,andhardeningthattakeplacewhen
cookedstarchisthencooled(p.548).The
initialfirmingofthefreshlybakedbreadloaf,

whichimprovesitsabilitytobesliced,is
causedbytheretrogradationofthesimple
straight-chainamylosemolecules,andis
essentiallycompletewithinadayofbaking.
FoodWords:Stale
Thoughstale now suggests a food that is
past its prime, old and dried out, it hasn’t
always had these negative connotations. It
is a medieval Teutonic word, and
originally meant “to stand” or “to age.” It
was applied to wines and liquors, which
became clarified and stronger in flavor
whentheywereallowedtostandforsome