I read an archived New York Times article a while ago that made the case for freezing bread.

Turns out, this is THE secret to perfect toast. Who knew? So toast lovers, journalist and food researcher, Emily Weinstein, launches introduces her well-researched advice on bread freezing with a modest proposal first: Don’t even bother with bad bread.

She’s saying, “Bid adios to sweet, cottony, lightweight toast; the kind that squishes under a butter knife or slumps under a blanket of jam.”

Just get the good stuff instead, the best bread you’re able to buy, preferably handmade loaves with sturdy crusts and tender crumbs, imbued with the flavors of fermentation. It’s more expensive, and that’s no small thing. But unlike some other items for which you may pay more, good bread is worth a little extra.

Then always keep it on hand. Emily argues that the best way to store bread isn’t to wrap it in foil, plastic or brown paper bags, sheath it in a pillowcase, or stash it in the breadbox. The best way to keep bread is to put it into the freezer — already sliced.

The slicing is crucial here. (It’s also a minor heresy in the fresh bread world, but hear her out.) It’s true—home bread bakers know that a whole loaf freezes incredibly well.

But when you defrost it, you replicate the problem of a whole loaf fresh out of the oven: Unless you have a full house, it’s a race to finish it before it goes stale. (Yes, you could make bread crumbs, but with apologies to devotees of schnitzel and gratins, who actually needs that many bread crumbs?) Emily says there are only two at her place, so a big loaf of fresh bread is difficult to take down. We have the same issue going on at our house.

By contrast, slices of good bread in the freezer practically qualify as convenience food: single serving and ever ready, the base of a luxuriously simple breakfast, a satisfying lunch, a restorative snack, a relaxed supper. And because you have stored your slices in the freezer, they do not degrade in the quick and nasty style of sliced bread left to languish at room temperature.

Here’s what Emily does: Whenever she sees an alluring loaf of bread, she buys it, takes it home, then starts slicing, cutting about half the loaf into thick, toaster-ready slices. She puts the pieces in a plastic zipper bag and pops them into the freezer. (Halved bagels work well, too.)

Then any time she wants a piece of toast, she removes a slice from the freezer and puts it directly into the toaster.

You don’t need any particular type of toaster. But you do need to think of your freezer periodically. Bread can’t be forgotten; if it is, freezer burn moves in. I can tell you from experience, though, that neglected slices will still work, it’s just that the toasted texture won’t be nearly as good. Whatever you do however, do not turn to the microwave, no matter how deeply frozen the bread. This is between you, the freezer and the toaster.

Bear in mind that the fresher your bread is when it goes in the freezer, the better your results will be. So gauge how much you want to eat fresh, and just freeze the rest. You could even freeze it all at once. There’s nothing like a formidable supply of toast in case the craving strikes.