Ever felt the aroma of bread baking right out of the oven in the kitchen? Perhaps you can remember seeing a loaf of bread stored in a metal or a wooden breadbox, always visible and yet not so much to maintain its freshness. For most of us, that breadbox was a common piece of household equipment, a small appliance stored in the kitchen but which played an important role in our daily lives.
Somewhere in the kitchen of a new house I have moved into there is a built in breadbox which is located conveniently next to the sink. All of a sudden, I was transported back to my grandmother’s kitchen; the breadbox was always filled with warm home-made dinner rolls or bought bread for merenda or toothsome toast with morning tea. This was a small wooden box in the corner of the kitchen counter, which had a much greater significance than simply holding things; it was the symbol of the home, the teachings of which were followed in the kitchen of the past decades.
Breadboxes as a kitchen appliance came into the American homes during the middle of the twentieth century. When there was no such thing as preservatives and plastic wraps, people used to make bread at home or buy one from the local bakery. With the modern and advanced packaging systems that we have today, bread usually gets stale or gets infested with insects if left exposed. Thus the breadbox with its rather simple yet efficient design was the solution to both problems. The ventilated body of the bread ensured that it did not develop mould while at the same time it was able to circulate air for the crust to remain crispy.
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