Nothing is better than the smell of freshly baked sourdough bread or the taste of a still warm slice of sourdough bread with butter. But is it?

There are celebrated artisan bakers who say a sourdough bread should rest for one to two days before slicing and eating it. They claim the bread continues to change and develop more flavor after it cools and “ages” developing the complexity it doesn’t have the day it comes out of the oven.

Historically, only the rich ate fresh bread. The middle class and poor typically baked bread once every two weeks or even less often. Also, loaves tended to be much larger and could be 4 lbs or more. Given the frequency of baking and the size of loaves, most bread was eaten stale or dry. Now, imagine you have a large loaf of bread on the counter that gets dryer and dryer. Your will have a hard time cutting a slice with your bread knife. Historically, as the bread continued to dry out, it was not uncommon for pieces to be sawed or hacked off the loaf. Bread was then soaked in water or milk before use. I am imagining cutting bread with a hack saw or a small hatchet. That is cooking for the adventurous chef!

While hacking your old bread then soaking it to make … what exactly…? out of it, doesn’t appeal to me and probably not to any today, I like to ponder about bread at it’s different stages of age.

Last Saturday, I baked a few extra loaves for myself. I waited for the loaves to cool down and cut a few slices from one, eating them with just a little bit of butter. The crust was crispy, the aroma of fresh-baked bread and the extremely soft crumb were a delight. I had to stop myself from eating half the loaf all at once. I left the other loaves on the counter for a day or two, before cutting a slice. When I ate it with butter, I didn’t think it was better tasting than the bread when it was fresh, but different. There was a different firmer texture and different aromas that are savory and very satisfying. With this “aged” bread, savory toppings or something more than just butter go very well. The last few slices of this bread ended up more on the dry side and required a bit of chewing (good for your jawbones I have read). And again, texture and subtle changes in flavor were noticeable.

I don’t expect anyone else to enjoy old bread at that stage, and it isn’t my favorite, but it is still edible and tasty. What I find intriguing is how the character of bread changes over time and how it can still be appealing. In a time where stale bread is considered undesirable, a sign of poverty; in a time where food waste is creating environmental issues while food insecurity even in the US is a widespread issue, it is worth considering the value of bread and food at its various stages of freshness and how we use it.

And there are others that are looking at “old” bread in new ways, or should I say old ways. For example, in Germany, a growing number of bakeries are opening locations that only sell day-old bread. They offer bread, buns and pastries that weren’t sold the day they were baked, at half price and people are buying, not just for the savings, but also for the perceived difference in flavor and to help reduce food waste.

Of course, anyone who buys fresh sourdough bread and doesn’t it eat all in one day, eats day-old and maybe eventually even “stale” bread. You may also appreciate the aging process. If not, there is always the option of heating or toasting your bread. It reverses the staling process, crips the crust and softens the crumb, making another delicious variation of “old” bread.