Understanding staling is a good way to begin a discussion of bread storage. We think of stale bread as being dry, rock hard or too tough to chew, and/or flavorless. Scientists have described many aspects of staling; they occur at different rates so that bread might be stale in some ways but not others. The research is interesting to consider, but keep in mind that the research was often done with a goal of increasing the shelf-life of factory-made bread. For example, one study stored the bread in tin containers in a special cabinet , which might not be relevant to artisan bread stored on your counter.