Bread

36% water · 265 kcal

Per 100 g

265 kcal Energy

9 g Protein

49 g Carbs

3.2 g Fat

2.7 g Fibre

Contains gluten GLUTEN GI 0

Let’s cook with it → Invent something with it

What it is for

They build structure. Starch granules swell in hot water, burst, and weave a net that traps the liquid — most of what you call body comes from here. Wheat does one extra job on top: gluten.

Where it catches you out

Starch does nothing before 62 °C, and acid cuts the chains during a long boil. Think about your thickener after the heat and before the acid.

The knack

Stale bread is an ingredient, not waste: dried at 150 °C for ten minutes and grated it is breadcrumbs; cubed and fried it is croutons. Starch retrogradation partly reverses with heat — five minutes at 160 °C buys a stale loaf one more meal.

Storage and health

How to keep it, and who it suits.

Keeping it

A cut loaf keeps two days in a paper bag on the counter; the fridge stales it faster, the freezer holds it three months. Stale is not spoiled — the starch has recrystallised, and warming reverses part of it.

Contains gluten

It is made from wheat flour, and the gluten network is the structure of the bread itself.

Allergen: GLUTEN

Glycaemic index

0 — glucose is taken as 100. Below 55 is low, 56–69 medium, 70 and above high. The number says nothing about portion: at the same index, twice the amount is twice the load.